Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

An old soldier sat arms crossed, eyes closed at the apex of a high set of steps. Wouldn’t know it from looking at him, only a pair of short laugh lines peeking from his nose betrayed his age. Only scar from his glory days was the cane he needed to ascend the steps and by all accounts he’d gotten off easy. His mind held strong, it’s more can be said for the rest of his half brothers in arms. The broad building behind him, a schoolhouse of sorts, held a fair many he didn’t know, but few he did, compelling his station.

He waited outside.

The noise of it all was too much, and he’d step in when it was time so he wouldn’t disappoint. He minded his quiet. The soft breeze refreshed his patience with the beating sun—it was almost time to make an appearance. The rhythm of heavy footfalls clambering up the steps wrestled his focus from him. He opened his eyes, seeing a sight for the sorest eyes, Barret motherfuckin’ Wallace jumping his giant frame up the steps to the temple three at a time, panting out a lung or two as he neared Cloud. The Avalanche days were far behind them, but their adventure played in his head every time they got to meet up: Bombing the reactor, running from Shinra. It felt like good times, despite how lethal and terrifying it was at the time. It was enough for a smile to crawl across his face that he retracted when Barret got too close. This wasn’t about him. Barret stopped right next to him at the landing, hunched over and out of breath; stairs—his number 2 enemy after Shinra. Or were they his number 1 now that Shinra is “long gone”?

“...Cloud”, Barret gasped out in a pitiable greeting. “Is it over? Did I miss it?” His labored breath embedding every other syllable in a puff.

“Don’t stop to talk to me, go in!” Cloud said with an indignant tone, Barret casting his hand down in frustration for the helpful as ever Cloud Strife. He grabs both doors and yanks them open, barreling inside, letting loose the audience drone from their muffled prison. Inside the building were about a hundred athletically clothed individuals of all ages, looks, and builds, all standing in a fan around a raised platform, a lei tai, nearer to the back of the building. Barret looked to the lei tai immediately seeing a pair atop it shuffling and circling against one another. Of the pair, there she stood— Marlene. It’s been weeks, working hard, driving long but it was all worth it now. Barret was here, here to see his pride and joy be the great woman he knew she was. Garbed in her martial uniform, loose black pants with a white sleeveless athletic half shirt, he couldn’t even see the other person up there, his eyes fixed on Marlene at all times.

First a left jab, a slip, shuffle to the right. Another jab— no, a feint into a side kick, which exploded into a flurry of kicks from one leg, a barrage of feet buffeting whatever poor fool happened to be on the end of it. Then came a thud, a groan and Barret shouting a,

“HELL YEAH!” about as loud as he possibly could audible even over the cacophony of applause that erupted during her combo. Marlene’s eyes dart over to where Barret stood, her head following swiftly and further after followed by a smile, one which mixed joy with embarrassment in equal parts.

The hooting and hollering gave Cloud his signal to make his way inside. He picks himself up, cane in his right hand supporting his ascension and his stride into the school. He moseyed from the short antechamber into the room proper, keeping close to the right wall minding its angle til he found an appropriate spot to lean. As he gazed upon the scene, he saw who he knew, Marlene at the top of the platform, and Denzel, with a few guys he didn’t know, crouching with a first aid kit over a bald man laid completely out, upside down, front facing into the adjacent wall.

When the clapping ceased, he knew she’d be there. His eyes shot to the lei tai as she stepped up. Her thigh length brown hair tied back into two fins flowing a majestic arc through the air. Garbed in a silken white qipao, cream colored feathers adorn the length. A side split in the dress to above her hips reveal black tights underneath, red hot gloves donning her hands and slippers, the same color, covering her feet. To Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart was cloaked in silver light and fire and they were lucky to have the privilege. With effortless steps across the lei tai, she personified grace and elegance. Cloud could feel his heart flutter; he was that Nibelheim boy with a crush all over again seeing her like this. He could never get over that, not since he started seeing her, really seeing her. He’s always rushed to be in front of her, her shining knight, but to him, he was never enough; never worthy. He was a blemish her light shouldn’t have wasted its radiance on. When he finally looked back at her, he saw that she didn’t just want to shine on him, she wanted to shine beside him. He was too blinded by his own feelings of inadequacy to stand at her side; a boy so weak he couldn’t protect her when it mattered most. You’d think defeating a demigod alone would halt those thoughts but they only festered. That is until he stopped dilly-dallying, of course. Even her corny chides were cute. He attempted with all his might to actually focus on what was happening and not get lost in her again.

The room remained silent as Tifa drew her right hand forward palm to the ceiling, hand curled slightly but just so. Practiced, efficient, the calling card of a true master. The two stand opposite one another, Marlene, a sharp, calculating expression as she gets into stance; short shouts accenting each movement. Tifa stares straight, her face an enigma, a blank canvas. Unreadable. It felt like an eternity of silence before something moved. It was Marlene, she charged forth, hands at chest height out engarde. She hid nervousness like steel clouds hide rain. The thunder preceding her.

A round snap kick, parried by Tifa’s lead hand. A lunging cross, parried by the same hand. A windmill of chops comes overhand, she circles to the left undaunted. A foot sweep, avoided by a backwards jump, the following desperate spinning high jump kick, whiffs… by millimeters; the force of the kick sending an arc wave of air, blowing Tifa’s hair straight back but leaving her unmoved. Marlene skidded on the landing after the whiff in a half side split away from her.

She’s doing better than last time, that’s for sure. Cloud thought to himself peering over at Barret.

Standing from the crouch, her arms raise above her head before being pinned to her sides, her elbows held straight back; air shifting around Marlene a golden swirl flashing for a second around her in triplet. Gold blooms from her feet as she boosts forward towards Tifa. A flurry of straight punches into a repeat of her earlier kick combination but it’s extended, stepping between feet forcing Tifa to use both her hands in defense, parrying and blocking every kick. Almost every kick. A high split kick, shoots from an odd angle, landing a scratch on Tifa’s cheek. Marlene is sent reeling back with a palm strike to the edge of the arena. Marlene clenches, nearly doubled over with only her toes on the edge of the platform but she managed to pull in her toes, standing straight and pushing her palms downward, maintaining her balance.

There’s a pause.

Tifa rubs her cheek. She looks at her hand. She looks at Marlene. She’d been so stoic up to this point. She’s on her in a split second… right into a bear hug, a smile so wide it looked like it’d burst.

“I’m so proud of you!” she says, lifting her into the air as the crowd cheers erupts in a standing ovation. A loud clamor shakes the floor approaching as Barret storms the stage, climbing up and wrapping both of them in an even bigger bear hug, lifting both of them up. Tifa opens her eyes for a moment, eyeing Cloud at the back who’s clapping along with everyone, leaned up against the wall with his typical stoic face. She flashes a smile meant just for him; he comes from off the wall, clapping with even greater fervor, his stoic look evolving into one of overwhelming reflected light. She’d shone on him again.

The soldier found himself outside the building at the top of the steps, as a steady stream of visitors left the school in twos and threes, this time accompanied by a giant of a man absolutely smothering his exceedingly embarrassed daughter. Barret holds Marlene close, his beard cheek rubbing rough grounds into her face, his head moving side to side, kissing her intermittently.
“Daaaad~. Dad! Sto-ho-h-hop! I’m not a little kid anymore!”

“My baby! My pride in joy, I knew you’d grow up to be great! But landin’ a hit on TIFA?! Ooooooooh~!

“I’m NOT a baby. Dad, I’m the same age uncle Cloud was when you all saved the World! The first time!”

“And look at where it got me…” Cloud pipes up, pushing himself up by his cane and points it at Marlene. “...crippled.” he plants it down to the ground in front of him, leaning on it, his free wrist hone to his hip. “You should treasure the time you have as a baby. It's no fun being old and angry all the time.”

Barret had released Marlene about half way through the Cloud’s little speech.

“Ion think you can say that.”, she stands there hands on her hips, her head cocked to one side.

“I said crippled, not a cripple.”

“Feels dirty, though.”

“Good grief…” He sits back down waving her off.

“Ooh, she gotchu, huh? You should know better, Cloud!” Barret instigates jumping in on the wagon to get at Cloud.

“Don’t think you clear by a damn sight, mister!” A shock expression takes hold of Barret’s face as his instigation backfires.

“You were LATE; to both my exams! BOTHA you were!” chiding both of them. Cloud looks away, Barret rubs the back of his head before stammering,

“I-I-I-I know, but the refin‘ry ’spections ran long…” He pauses, his hand moving to cover his mouth, sliding slowly forward til he’s ready to speak again. “...an’ you tol’ me not to use ma’ arm to hold people up no more.”

Marlene stares daggers at Barret as he sheepishly explains his shortcomings, avoiding having his eyes punctured.

When he fizzles, she retorts, “So it’s my fault you were late.”

“N-no! No, I just…I took too long, and it's my fault.”

“Uh huh.” His excuse notwithstanding, she continued. “And as for you...” She pointedly turns to Cloud who further twists his neck as if saying Man, is this rail new?

“You waited outside again, didn’t you ?”

The sky’s looking pretty nice too. “Barret’s gotta open the door for me when he comes through.”

“I seen yo ass clear the steps in one leap.” Barret shakes his head, eyes squinting.

“How’re you gonna snitch so casually?”

“SNITCH?!”

“Not snitchin’ if it’s a bold faced lie! You’re not that old, Uncle Cloud.” she says dismissively. Cloud squints a quizzical look at her.

“When I was twenty, forty was old.” Cloud grumbles despite the complement.

“And what’s that make me, Soldya Boy?”

“Decrepit.”

“You’re both incorrigible.” Marlene turned back to her dad only to find him not offended, mad or even chuckling to cope with the jab. He looked like he was pondering something. She saw the gray in his hair for the first time. No, she only just processed it there. He’d always been this wall, this rock, this mountain. The perfect statue of her father had gained cracks overnight.

“You’re right.”

“D-dad, listen, you’re not old either.”

“No, I mean ’bout you not being a kid anymore.” Barret peers down at her with tenderness, yet firmness. He’d always lavished her with the quivering eyes of a parent cooing over a newborn. But not now.

“You’ve grown into” he breathes in steady, “...a remarkable woman, and I need to start actin’ like it.” He reaches into his back pocket, pulling out an envelope, holding it up for her to see. “I know, I’m real late to this, but…” There's five thousand gil in this envelope, that should be enough to get you a boost to start out on your own.”

Marlene covers her mouth and nose, eyes widening, recognition dawning, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

“You can get yourself setup in edge; open ya own school, or maybe travel, settle down somewhere else. And don’t worry about me, you needa start your life. Be who you wanna be--” Marlene cuts him off, rushing a hug around Barret’s frame, nothing short of a miracle her arms even fit around him. Then she picked him up, Tifa, you are too much.

“Whoa! Whoa, now! C’mon now, I’m not dying or nothin! NOT UNLESS YOU DROP ME!”

“Thank you so much, daddy!” She places him back down. He exhales in relief, then looks at her.

“Anything you need, anything, I’m just a call away.” She nods, smiling up at him.

“I’m gonna go tell Denzel.”, she takes the envelope and climbs back up to the entrance, almost walking into a couple who congratulate her for the second time today and leaves the two outside.

Cloud looks over at Barret, impressed by his fortitude. Marlene was always his baby. Letting her go?

“Damn, big man, didn’t know you had it in you.”

Barret doesn’t respond. Cloud’s admiration fell away with Barret’s resolve.

“Ah, shit.”

“Marlene.”

“There it is.”

“Marlene~!”

Barret starts stomping up the steps to get back to Marlene, stopped by Cloud tripping him up with his cane.

“Oh, no you don’t.”

“AH!” Barret falls with a clatter. Unable to gain precious footing.

“Can’t put the bandage back on—”

“Marlene! MARLENE! Oh my baby, oh…” He shouted as if Marlene disintegrated right in front of him.

“Get a grip will ya? You were the one who wanted to do this, right? Hold it in. We’re gonna see her later, anyway.” He planted his cane back in front of him.

“All dese years, ya still so damn cold.” Barret shot a glare at the soldier holding an unaffected posture. “Can’t ya see how hard this is for me?!”

“That’s why I’m being hard on you.” he replied calmly. “You’ll thank me later.” Barrett’s anger reached a boiling point.

“You think I’m gon’ thank you for THIS!” he shouted.

“No. But down the line you’ll give me a look that says something like” he inhaled, faking a big chest, “‘You know what soldja boy, you aight.’and I'll count that as a thank you.”

Barret scoffed but calmed down, got his ass up and sat right next to Cloud. He’s holding it in properly now.

“5000, huh?”

“Times have changed, man. 2000 ain’t got the spending power it used to.”

“It ain’t that bad.”

“Little extra since the… y’know, it’s the two of ‘em.”

“Ah.” Cloud was surprised, but he hid it well. To see Denzel as his own too… A lull rested in their talks. Cloud wasn’t one for idle banter. Not opposed to talking, he just didn’t have anything to talk about.

“…So” Barret pipes up after a spell. “It’s single life for me, now, huh?”

“I can’t help you with that one.” Cloud shrugged.

“I seem to recall girls gravitatin’ aroun’ you.”

“That’s just ‘cause I was dense. You know gravity’s based on mass, right?” Another exhale from Barret, “Being a loner doesn’t suit you, be regular.”

Barret chuckled, “What, ya don’t think I can pull off the scowl.”

“Oh, you got the scowl, but you’re a teddy bear underneath so it cancels out.” That got a full laugh outta Barret.

“You ain’t know me when I first joined Avalanche. I’da made you look well adjusted. A bull in a china shop not carin’ what I hit. Tifa set me straight.”

“She’s really good at that.”

“Amen.”

Another lull grows in their conversation. Cloud let the silence wash over while Barret tucked in his lips, rubbing his chin, looking downward; the next thing out his mouth was gonna be hard.

“How is… he?” He needed no further explanation, Cloud knew exactly who he was talking about.

“He’s fine.”

“Really?” Barret lookd over at Cloud trying to gauge his reaction. “Nothin’… weird? He treat the animals and bugs ok? Don’t say nothin’ scary?”

“No.”

“Kids say scary shit all the time so it’s easy to miss the signs, man.”

“He brings home so many strays, the pound is thinking of paying us a salary.”

A single snicker gets held in Barret’s throat. “So it’s just looks, then. No problems with—”

Barret couldn’t finish that thought as the door opened again, realizing his position in the middle of the steps, he pushed himself up to move out of the way.

“‘Scuse me—”

Speak of the Devil. Tall, too tall, slender and fair skinned. A slight yet beguiling smile formed across his lips. He stepped forward past the door into the outside, the sunny day blocked by a cloud overhead, dulling the light and the temperature outside. His gaze pierced Barret, his blue eyes too vibrant to ignore, pupils he could’ve swore contracted into wide slits in response to the change in light level. He walked a gait that echoed loudly the name of one that should have been forgotten a long time ago, a mop of silver hair, the final consonant of destruction in Barret’s mind. Fight or flight bounces back and forth instinctively with him. He’d had no chance to prepare himself.

“Hey.” His deep voice emanates, filling Barret with dread. Even that was too damn close. He looked over at Cloud expecting to read on his face the same dread but found a softness he couldn’t believe, like they were looking at completely different people.

“Hey son.”

Chapter Text

After all this time, Barret still couldn’t believe what he looked like. Really couldn’t believe Cloud was so calm about it. Sephiroth had caused a lot of people suffering, but none, still living, were more personal than Cloud and Tifa. He’d burned their village, killed their parents and haunted them for years after his death. He robbed Cloud of his sense of self, puppeted him, made him betray his friends and had him give away the key to Gaia’s destruction. He couldn’t even die just once, he came back to life on two separate occasions and each time Cloud paid a price. And here he was, his son the spitting image of that monster in his younger years and he could treat him with love like nothing was wrong. They’d talked about it as the look started to set in on his fifth birthday. The prevailing theory was that the Sephiroth cells still dormant in Cloud overwrote his genetic code. But even so, Jenova’s head, Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz were all lost. Whatever was left of Sephiroth in the lifestream was so fragmented the dominant life form that governed the Reunion might actually be Cloud. Or so their theory goes. Absent of that, they all agreed they’d cross the bridge when they got to it. But how does one get across the bridge over his son’s life? 

The clouds passed, the rays returned; the boy put his hand on his forehead to shield his eyes. A chill ran down Barret’s spine, he could've sworn he saw his blue eyes contract into slits. Apparently, it was Cloud's original eye color, but in certain lights... He steeled himself, exhaling as he put on the cool uncle’s bravado.

“What’s happenin’, nephew?” He goes in for the dap up the kid who reciprocated, giving him a clean dap of his own. 

“Just waiting. Mom’s still in there,” He thumbed back at the schoolhouse. “…the Prattrels are talking her ear off and she’s too nice to tell them to leave. Again.”

“Yeah, that sounds like her.” Cloud rubbed his forehead, preparing for a long wait time.

“What were you guys talkin’ about?” The question caught Barret off guard. He stammered.

“Oh, uh, w-we was just, uh—”

“We were talking about you not taking your mother’s lessons to heart, Zack.” He stood up fast, taking the heat off of Barret. “You’re moving like a statue in there.” Zack turned to the side, as if he was rolling with the insult to dissipate its impact.

“Dad, I don’t know if I’m any good at this.” Rubbing the back of his head, eyes cast downward in a meek gesture.

“You don’t think you’re any good, or you just don’t want to do it?” His tone had the nudging care of a father, firm but fair. Zack paused, contemplating.

“You think you’d hurt your mother?”

“It's not that I don’t wanna, it’s just… it doesn’t feel right to me--for me.” It was clearly an excuse to get his dad off his case and Cloud knew this. “And I know, I know, I should talk to mom about it, it’s just...”

“Uh huh.”, and Cloud let it be. His son would come to his own when he was ready.

“Just don’t take too long, ok?”

“Whatever you decide, you gotta be serious.” Barret laid his arm around Zack looking down at him. It’s not hard once you get into the groove of talking. “You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, y’know?” Zack smiled, a small exhale leaving his nose. He looked up at Barret.

“I’m not a kid anymore, Barret, I’m older than when Dad left home. I’m a lot older than when Master Kisaragi went on her first mission.” 

“ HEH?! ” Cloud snapped a little hearing that.

“How’d we just hear the same line from two different kids? Oops sorry, I mean, uh, young—.”

“ STOP! Hold on.” Cloud raised a hand to shush Barret and then points his finger at Zack, a slight manic twitch in his eyes.

“What did you call her?”

“…Master Kisa—.” He’d not even finished before Cloud started rapid fire dialing a number into his phone, raising it to his face. “—ragi.” Cloud waited on the line for an answer, a cold harsh look on his mug. Zack started fiddling thinking he did something wrong, Barret’s trying his hardest not to lose it from laughter. The phone clicked.

“This better be important.” A haughty, woefully ignorant voice calls over the line. Yuffie Kisaragi wasn’t just any warrior from Wutai, not just the daughter of Wutai’s former leader. She was Wutai’s Greatest Weapon. The Materia Hunter. Savior of the planet and the most beautiful ninja around. So if she, the current leader of the Wutai nation, held office, she should at the very least be allowed to spoil herself a little now and then. The six attendants massaging her feet, manicuring her nails and rubbing her shoulders weren’t too much. The attendant she had fetch her phone, accept the call and hold it to her ear? Not extraneous. She’d only beaten Sephiroth ( with some help ) , this is the bare minimum. Her ‘Me’ time being interrupted by a call on her personal phone? What could possibly be so great an issue?

“You’re making my son call you master ?!” She was caught red handed. 

“CLOUD?! ” Yuffie shoots up fast, startling all of her attendants, including the one holding the phone. The poor girl drops the phone in shock. Dread immediately washes over her as it hits on the ground. Yuffie swipes it up after only one impact, damning her manicured nails in vein, finding her home screen open on it. The fall had dropped the call. She stared hot death into the poor girl before hitting redial.

Cloud held the phone to his ear despite the call dropping, completely deadpan. Slowly, he moved the phone to in front of him, looking at the home screen, like he didn’t realize he’d been hung up on. His phone rang shortly after. He closed it on the first ring sending it straight to voicemail. Barret and Zack watched Cloud get another call, decline it and fiddle with his phone quickly after. 

“Uh, Dad, I think—.”

“When she calls you, answer it and give it to me.” Cloud interrupted, cold as anything. Barret started breathing weird, making noises now and heaving as if he’s being attacked from the inside.

“O…k.” And sure enough, Zack got a ring on his phone. He looked down at his phone to find the smoking gun, ‘Master Kis…’ displayed right on his home screen, rolling leftwards to reveal the ‘…aragi’ cutoff. He answered.

“Hello?” Cloud held his hand out expectantly and Zack handed it over. An inaudible chatter is heard from the phone before Cloud put the receiver to his ear. “…listen we can just forget the Master stuff, ok. From now on I’m just Miss Kisaragi. Or ! You know what? You can just call me Big Sis Yuffie, just… could you hand the phone over to your dad? For me? Right now?!” A feigned chipperness hid true fear behind a silken veil. 

Cloud said nothing.

“Zack? …Zack-Wacky?” A call into the void. The dead air could kill with a breath.

“…Cloud?” She finally put the pieces together. “Cloud, t-t-this whole master thing… it was a joke… y’know? I wanted to see how you’d react to it. And I knew junior would say it around you eventually, you know? That’s all.” Her voice quivered out a lie so bad, you almost wanna let her off. “Just a…” she swallows hard. “…just a joke.” A pause held briefly. Yuffie held close to her phone, hair clenched in her hand. Her attendants stood in awe around her, they’d never seen this side of their mistress.

“Ok, I got a joke for you, too. I got a delivery coming up, I’ll tell you when I get down there.” 

“CLOUD NO—. ” He hung up and blocks the number on Zack’s phone so she can’t call back, and handed it back to him. Barret let forth the deluge of laughter he’d dammed behind his defeated chronically underbuilt self control. The force of which, so great, he slipped down a step on accident, then continued laughing despite it. 

“You guys are cruel.” Zack pitied the spot Mas-- Big Sis Yuffie had landed in.

“It’s necessary.” His father said without a hint of sarcasm or humor which only made Barret crack up for a second volley, now rolling sideways.

“Whatever.” 

“ It’s necessary! ” Barret repeated, stomped out by his laughter. He didn’t even realize the people walking down the steps past him tailed shortly by Tifa with a,

“Thanks again.”, carrying a basket in one hand, waving with the other. She stepped down a couple steps looking down at Barret dying of laughter. “What are you doing?”, a bit embarrassed her good friend was laughing like a maniac on the steps to her Wuguan. She pulled in her lips, turning her head to look over at Cloud, focusing on him for some kind of answer, then seeing his cane, worry crawls across her face.

“Don’t look at me, it was his choice to laugh.” Cloud dismissed.

“You’re using the cane again?!” Voice consumed with worry, tinged with frustration. Cloud shuffled in his seat hearing that, like he was surprised he had the damn thing on him. 

“For the fashion.” He tried to downplay it. 

Tifa wasn’t having it. She put down the basket, kneeling on the dirt covered steps in her dress. Cloud tried to protest, but he gets overridden. “You should’ve come and got me.” She started rubbing her hands together. They glew golden before she moved to open his robe. He resisted and she gives him a look. 

“Alright, alright.” He worked with her to take the left shoulder of his jacket off, reaching down to place her hand on the small of his back. A warmth flowed through his whole back as Tifa’s chakra flowed into him. 

He breathed in and exhaled, “…thanks.” Gratitude voice at a pitiful volume.

“If it acts up, come get me! Don’t sit there in pain, you need to stop doing that!”

“...I know.” 

“Mom?” Zack made his presence known. Tifa looked back at him, her concern resigning to poise in the face of her son. 

“Zack, watch your father.” Cloud pulled his robe back up. “If you see him reach for that cane, come get me; seeing as he doesn’t want to disturb me.” She shot him a stare when she says ‘disturb’. Cloud looked skyward, before fixing his gaze into Tifa’s. Her expression softens as they look into each other's eyes. She kissed him, it's more of a peck but Cloud kisses her back, lengthening the firework show inside the both of them by just a little bit.

“I love you.” Tifa said after a moment.

“I love you, too.” Cloud responded in kind.

Zack groaned in the background, seeing his parents kiss and be lovey dovey was still too much for him to handle. 

Tifa scoffed, “ Sorry , we’ll get a room next time.”

Barret’s phone rings, Tifa turned her head to see Barret pulling his phone out.

“Uh oh.” He turned it to show Yuffie calling him. Tifa cocked her head to the side, bewildered. 

“Yuffie’s calling? That’s rare.” Barret put a finger to his lips before putting the phone to his ear.

“Yo, Yuffie! What’s happenin’?!” In a shouted manner meant to mimic what he sounded like while on the road. Tifa looked over at Barret with a furrowed brow. Looking to Cloud gave her no answers either; he was twisting his torso as if nothing weird was going on. 

“BARRET! Is Cloud with you? Can you put him on, please?” Yuffie rushes a none greeting full of anxiety.

“Cloud?! Listen, I’m doin’ my rounds right now. You ain’t called me in weeks, about nothin’, and you wanna talk to Cloud?! Shit girl that’s low!”

“No-n-n-no no! I didn’t mean to—.”

“Look, if you wanna talk to Cloud, don’t be goin’ through me, aight !”

“BARRE—!”

Barret hung up the phone now a full participant in the ‘turn Yuffie into a nervous wreck’ scheme, he belt out another hearty, knee slapping laugh. Tifa shot a disapproving look at Barret, hands on her hips, not comprehending just how ‘necessary’ this punishment was. Cloud stood up, stretching, not needing the cane but keeping it in step with him, ‘for the fashion’. 

“We should get going.” He started down the steps, he’s lighter now.

“What was that even about? I heard her over the line, you shouldn’t scare her like that! She just wanted to talk to Cloud, right?” She turned to Cloud walking down the steps.

“Did something happen to your phone?” The worry creeped back into her voice.

Cloud stopped, half turned for a moment and said simply, “She had Zack calling her Master Kisaragi.”

“Maybe I’ll block her, too.” The worry disappearing faster than one could take a breath, she pulled her phone out to make it official, 

“No!” Barret stifled another laugh. “No. You the final piece. You ain’t notice she saved you for last?”

“Mmhmm.” She snapped her phone shut, almost out of character for her. Picked herself up, dusting herself off, grabbing the basket and hurrying down the stairs to not get left behind.  

“You’re all crazy.” Zack said, following soon after them. Tifa caught up to Cloud, intertwined her arm in his as they walk down the stairs. He wasn’t going to leave her side for a while. Cloud weighed the merits of having her worry over him. It felt good for the time, but he always felt sorry for doing so. He’d make it up to her later tonight. Looking down at the basket in Tifa’s hand, made Cloud curious. 

“So what did the Prattrels give you this time?” She looked at him with a smile.

“Korean barbecue meat. Marinated ribeye, pork belly, bulgogi .”

“Mmph.” He could taste tonight’s dinner already. “Enduring them has its perks.”

Tifa scoffed at the implication. “I happen to enjoy our conversations. The gifts are a bonus.”

“I would never insinuate otherwise.”

They reached the bottom of the steps with Barret complaining about there being so many as they walked towards his truck, an easy find, not just because of its size but the emptiness of the street outside now that everyone else had left. 

“I just don’t get why?!”

“It’s your first lesson. Everyone who wants to learn something has to put in hard work. Maybe you shouldn’t be sitting in your truck all day everyday.” Barret waveed off the comment.

“I better not keep on about them steps. Tifa might go off again call me a re—.”

“BARRET, YOU PROMISED!” Genuine fear and near betrayal peak from her cries. Barret opened the door to his truck and slowly climbs in a wide evil grin.

“Call him a what?” Followed by genuine confusion from the only party not present for the event.

“Nothing, honey!”

“Nothing said that day wasn’t true at the time.”

“You promised, too!” Punctuated by actual pointing, she opens the passenger side door to get in, practically running from this conversation.

Zack scratched the back of his head and grabbed the back door handle. He’s about to open the door when to his left he heard a loud,
“HE~Y!”, off in the distance. He looked over to spy a girl calling out to him, waving and gesturing for him to come closer. He’d seen her at school before. Not the Wuquan ‘school’ but the actual academy. He gives her a small wave before turning back to the door, now finding it unmovable. He furrowed his brow before turning to his right, finding his father glaring at him.

“Dad?” Zack laughed nervously.

“No, you don’t. Go over there and talk to them.” This wasn’t a suggestion.

“But what about lat—?” 

“That’s later. Go talk to her.” 

“Why?” Cloud patted a hand down on Zack’s shoulder. He rubbed it with a bit of force. 

“It’s good for you.” He gave him two claps on his other shoulder. Zack knew there was no getting out of this. His father rarely ever held this firm on something, but when he did, he knew best to follow along. He sighed, looks down and then walks over to the girl, looking back every now and again to see if his dad was still watching him. 

“You’ve got two hours, play nice.” His job done, Cloud opened the passenger side door and climbs in to see an expectant Tifa and Barret looking back at him coy as could be.

“What?!” 

The two look conspiratorially at one another before Tifa turned to Cloud.

“Oh, nothing. It's just surprising. Seeing you take that kind of initiative.” 

“You the only one allowed to use the loner rizz, eh?” 

“DON’T YOU EVER USE THAT WORD AGAIN!” Cloud shouted impassionedly his truth, he knew how wrong that was from the bottom of his being. Juxtaposed be a car filled with a harmony of deep hearty laughter. “I don’t care what Marlene says”, He pointed a trembling finger straight at Barret. “YOU ARE TOO OLD TO BE USING WORDS LIKE THAT!” 

“Oh, I don’t know Cloud, you certainly got me with that ‘loner rizz’.” 

“Kill me. Please kill me now.” He declared with full conviction at his lowest point. Covering his whole face as if to hide from the shame and embarrassment as they continue their laughing fit. “Is it really that crazy I want for my son what I didn’t get?”

“Oh and whose fault was that?” Tifa retorted, leaning in on him.

“That’s exactly my-- you two will trip off anything .” It was at that moment, Tifa’s phone finally rang. She flipped it open seeing who else but Yuffie Kisaragi. Finally worked up the courage to call her. Tifa clicked the answer button and puts it on speaker.

“Hel—”

“Tifa, please… I need to speak to Cloud.” A hushed whisper slinks out the speaker, a Yuffie, batter broken and beaten came through over the phone. “I messed up. I messed up on something stupid, could you please just hand him the phone?!” If a frayed wire was a person, it was Yuffie right now.

“Hold on, hold on. You called me , just to get to Cloud?” Tifa started playing it up, exaggerating her movements to go with her fake anger.

“I KNOW…I know, but it’s urgent. It’s really urgent, ok?!”

“Just calm down for a second, what’s this even about?”

A long silence comes over the line.

“…Yuffie?”

“I…I can’t tell you.”

“Oh… well… when I see him, I’ll be sure to let him know you called. Master Kisaragi. ” 

“TIFA NO—!” Tifa slammed the phone closed, Barret leant back in his seat, his voice almost hoarse laughing so much in one sitting. He pulled himself forward rubbing his forehead, a tension headache forming. Tifa wasn’t spared from cackling, letting out her own leaning over on to Cloud. Even he was letting out an extended chuckle. After a good while, the laughter died down between the three of them. It was nice, the three of them were best friends, but seldom enjoyed time like this. A pause broke in the laughter briefly.

“Oh, are we waiting for Marlene?” Looking over at Barret to see him cringe slightly at the question.

“Nope.” Cloud replied quick with Barret saying nothing as he gripped the steering wheel tight. “The bandage got ripped off, we ain’t sticking around. Right, big man?” Tifa looked over at Barret, a man damn near possessed, turning the key in the ignition like a zombie. 

“It’s…” He swallows hard. “It’s for the best.” The truck roared to life, rumbling at rest before Barret shifts gears, knowing if he saw Marlene come out the school, he’d abandon all his senses and vows of change. 

“Oh… ok.” Tifa kinda got it. Not really. “So Seventh Heaven, first?”

“Yep.” Barret put his foot on the gas, bound for the Seventh Heaven, a tribute to Avalanche’s secret base. Then after, a tribute to an old friend.

Chapter Text

Zach approached the girl at the behest of his father. He’d always been bothered by his dad’s insistence that he socialize. Like he didn’t have the ability. He just preferred being alone. He wasn’t blind. He never understood how his father didn’t see it. He was strong… too strong. He remembered the kids he knew, how they played hide and seek, how he’d torn a large piece of scrap metal in half to get to them, and how they’d screamed and cried, ‘MONSTER!’. From that point on, he’d kept others at a distance, treating the people around him like porcelain dolls atop an earth of egg shells. 

He minded his quiet.

He reached her, a sharp glower on his face, starkly contrasted against her sunny disposition. With her white jean shorts, streak print gray button up underneath an off the shoulder white half jacket, Zack couldn’t say she wasn’t at least… trendy. A distinct pair of black loafer style shoes with a raised heel and platinum blond hair made her a near chessboard of black and white. A hand to the side her mouth, she projects a,

“Hey there, Zack!” She said in a melodic chipper timbre.

“Zack?” He paused, curious.

“That’s your name, right?” She leaned forward, head cocked cutely to the side, her innocence showing broadly across her face. Or perhaps she was just playing coy. Zack didn’t much care for the latter idea.

“And what business is it of yours?”, he retorted coldly, making himself taller, more threatening.

“I make it my business to know. We are in the same year.” She closed a bit of the distance between them, bending forwards.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He moved forward, circling her like a shark. Fia doesn’t back down, maintaining eye contact. “So, is stalking part of the trade or—”

“Stalking?!” She scoffed at his accusation, not even allowing him to finish.

“I am not nor have I ever been stalking you!” This seemed to put her off, placing a hand on her chest selling the offense taken, but was less offended than Zack intended. What’s it gonna take to get her off him?

“So you just happened to be outside my mom’s schoolhouse when I came out?”

“That’s my story.” She shrugged, a smug look awash in her face, daring him to push further. “What’s not to believe?” Zack leaned in further, another attempt to intimidate her. 

“It’s dangerous to follow people you don’t know.” She didn’t back down, her footwear making her taller than his father even. He had less on her than he thought he should.

“Is there someone I should be scared of?” He couldn’t back down. It was a stand off, her blue eyes staring into his, his green eyes staring into hers. Without words they knew, whoever broke eye contact first loses. An intense stare down, a true battle of will and grit, only interrupted by the roar of an engine. They turned to see the truck with Zack’s parents and Barret peel out of the parking spot. Zack deflated. A draw. The tragedy. 

“Guess I’m walking.”

“Guess so…that’s a bit cruel.” She dramatically placed a hand onto her head, feigning distress. ‘To leave you in the clutches of one so terrible.”

“Didn’t you need something from me, Fia?” She opened her mouth to speak, and then she’s stunned, her eyes open, her mouth agape in pure shock. Zack walked by her, leaning in to tell her straight in her ear, “I make it my business to know, too.”

“Touche.” She turned on one heel, arms behind her back. Zack looked over at her out of the corner of his eye. He had to be nonchalant at all costs after his last move.

“Ok.” She shuffled her shoulders fidgeting physically to muster the mental strength to say what must be said. Finally, clapping her hands together, she bowed.

“Please help me study for the contemporary history test!” Her prostration was met with contempt; Zack looks down on her, his face scrunched in indignation.

“Are you serious?! Contemp history is so easy!”

“Easy for you !” She pouted, looking up at him. “You talk in class like you were there ! You’ve got the highest average in the class, please !” She stood there, bent forward in meek surrender. He rubbed his chin in thought. ‘I could get her outta my hair if I just give her the answers and dip, but that depends on how bad she is at history. Maybe, if I’m unreasonable…’

“What’s in it for me?” He said determined now to use extortion to drive her off.

“Hmmm…” She pivoted left and right, a hand on her chin, obviously deep in thought. The snap of her fingers preceding,  “One date oughta suffice. A date per study session.” Zack didn’t let this defeat show on his face; he couldn’t. She was obviously joking. Obviously. He’d throw her off, easily.

“Your family imports dates from Corel?”, he said, trying to call her bluff. She paused at that, a blank stare on her face then she smiles giggling. Before when she smiled, it was pleasant, but false. This one felt a measure deeper. 

“How cute.” Slipped free from her lips and penetrated him deep in his psyche.

“THE HELL ARE YOU talkin—the—the WHAT?!” Heat. All he could feel was heat. His face was hot, like a damned iron. Flush red his eyes darting back and forth, shifting between fight or flight, the fight to maintain eye contact and the flight to avoid it. In the end, flight wins. He turned away, stomping up the street. “Whatever!” He walks eyes closed for several steps, opening them after a bit, finding Fia walking next to him, still looking at him.

“Where’re we goin’?”, still as coy as ever. He turned around, fast.

“Listen…” she looked at him. He was getting desperate now. “Payment’s gotta be upfront, Fia.” ‘No one in their right mind would take a deal like that. No one in their right mind would offer a date in the first place but this is even worse.’ His mind raced, trying to hold fast to his shattering cognitive. 

“Hmmm, a hard bargain.” She pondered for a moment. Or maybe she was just pretending to ponder it. “Deal.” She was calling his bluffs like a telemarketer desperate for a raise. And now he’d agreed to the terms, technically. Up the ante?

“And you gotta pay since it was your idea.” Zack said, thinking to himself, ‘If that didn’t shake her off, nothing will.  There is no way—she’s taking out her wallet. She’s taking out her goddamn wallet.’

“I’ve got 2000 gil, so—.”

“I’m done. Let’s just go.” Zack surrendered. Fia beamed.

They made their way to District 6. Much like Sector 6 before it, it had the best food and fun around. And with the Don gone, the worst of the worst no longer had a king to hide behind the coattails of. Zack remembered the stories his father used to tell him about Wall Market, about Don Corneo, the tournament he fought in to secure a way into the Don’s castle to save his mom. His mom filled him in on the other thing dad had to do to get in. He kept that little nugget to himself, his father would probably die of embarrassment knowing he knew. There was a certain ice cream parlor that was always backed up; a line around the block during the summertime. He assumed he’d break her off this way, waiting so long he’d give her the answers she was looking for, the sun would kill her and he’d give her an out to dip. 

“Question: Why is the city called Edge?” Fia looked up at him, a bit surprised, then suspicious.

“Aren’t you the one who said, ‘Payment up front.’”, her voice deepened to mock his voice, and her face followed, a caricature of his gloomy mug. 

“Chill with that. This is more efficient, what else are we gonna talk about?”

“Stuff.” She veers off to one side. “ Things .” She veered back and collides with him.

“Dude?” He stared down at her with disdain.

“We could get into your brooding backstory.” she growled the last two words causing the couple behind the two of them to stifle their laughter.

“The city name!” He was tired of her shenanigans, a tinge of embarrassment coming over him.

“Hmmm. It’s ‘cause it was the edge of the old city, Midgard?”

“That’s he colloquial answer, but the truth is, the old mayor of Midgar, then acting mayor gave a speech and he said, ‘This city is on the edge of a new beginning.’ But the mic cut out during the speech, so it was like, ‘This city… Edge…’ and then everyone ran with it. Write something like that, you’ll get full marks, he always weighs this really heavily for some reason.”

“ Oh . I see.” The line moved forward a person. Zack looked at her out of the corner of his eye. Her eyes were cast forward and she was fanning herself. ‘Perfect.’ he thought to himself. 

“You gonna write any of that down?” 

“Oh, I got it, filed and saved.” Fia tapped her temple with a smug grin.

“Your grades must be going through turmoil.”

“We can review after our date.” The emphasis on ‘date’ caused the girls behind them to laugh again, trying Zack’s patience once again. Fia looked back at the two not so subtly gesturing to them that Zack only saw out of the corner of his eye. Whatever she did got them laughing again, annoying Zack to no end. He had intended to kill her with the heat, but he was the one in the hot seat. 

“Next question,” He said sternly, “…what brought the end to our modern use of Mako?” Fia was silent for a beat, thinking.

“Besides the ethical concerns, Mako is a limited resource, and without it our planet couldn’t support life. This came to a head when our activity released Weapons from the core of the planet, mako infused kaiju meant to protect the planet from danger, which were eventually dispatched by Shinra?” She eyed him for a second as if gauging his reaction. “And then again when we almost got wiped out by: surprise meteoric impact, and the planet had to use its power to protect itself.” 

“Nice. Perfect answer.” Zack said, a little surprised. Of course it wasn’t completely true. Early attempts at coverage of the ‘Near Miss’, news outlets, still Shinra in legacy, with very little to go on, reported that the Weapons were dispatched after the Retrofitted Sister Ray shot a hole through Diamond Weapon and the barrier at the North Crater. By Shinra, of course, but at that point with the president presumed dead and all the executive members with him, the old regime was dealt with swiftly. None could have known a reanimated Sephiroth was to blame for the Planet's near destruction. 

The line moved forward another foot, prompting Zack to move on to his next question. “Here’s a tougher one—” 

“But that’s not the right answer is it?” Fia cut him off.

“What’d you mean by that?” An eyebrow raised, curious.

“It wasn’t Shinra who awakened the Weapons.”

She stood on her tip toes, just barely reaching his ears.

“I heard it was Sephiroth.” A smoky whisper left her lips.

When she withdrew, there’s a flash of deviousness in her face that melted away as she eyes Zack’s face not change as she’d seemingly expected it to; giving way to slight bewilderment. Zack’s world didn’t crumble at her words, it didn’t even crack. He just looked like she said the dumbest thing he’d heard all day.

“You’re trippin’! He was dead long before that.” Even Zack wasn’t aware of the whole truth, for his own good, of course. He catches the stare she’s giving him, a cold stare. She clears her throat and the line moves forward once again. The heat bared down with no shade in sight.

“I-I just heard a theory about it!” She folded her arms, pouting as they move forward.

“Where? Public Access Tube? Deep web threads online?” Zack took his chance to be on top in this conversation. 

“A friend of my dad!” She was getting defensive, now. Good in Zack’s book. He wasn’t even thinking of getting her to leave, he just wanted to get her back.

“He told me a lot more than that!” Coming out strong so she didn’t get bowled over.

“Back in the day, he and you’re da—”

But he’d disappeared. Before her very eyes, he was there one moment and gone the next. A loud bang rang out. Then came a screech. Then a crash. She turned to see what happened, a car crash, a near miss with Zack holding a kid in one arm and stopping a large semi with the other. The front tire was flat, seemingly the source of the loud bang. Zack’s hand made a big dent in the grill of the truck, but didn’t pay it any mind; he was checking on the wellbeing of the kid who was obviously in shock. The man behind the wheel got out, a slew of apologies and tears loosed from him. No doubt this was traumatic for the two of them, even if it was nobody's fault. The line for the ice cream parlor began to morph into a crowd of onlookers, circling around the scene. When they got too close, Zack looked at them as if he was aware of a danger they posed that no one else could see. He let go of the kid, backed away, then beelined down an alleyway. Fia couldn’t believe what she’d just seen. Not the strength and speed of it, but how he ran. He ran from the scene as if he’d caused it.

Zack stayed huddled inside a small hole in the wall. They’d seen him, they’d all seen it. She’d seen it. That monstrous strength, he saw flashes from his childhood, those looks of terror. But even so, that kid was going to die. In no world would he choose to keep his secret. He had to calm down, took deep breaths. Next, his plan of action. If they were looking for him, he’d deal with it. He stood up to leave, and only the last thing he wanted to see was there. Fia stood right in front of him with a gentle look. Zack breathed in, then out, slowly, preparing for the worst. 

“So…” She dragged the word, taking a green chip speckled ice cream out from behind her back and holding it out to Zack. “…you kinda left without telling me what ice cream you wanted so I got you mint chocolate chip.” Zack froze, in the moment, he didn’t know at all how to respond.

“You followed me back here?” He interrupted.

“Yeah?” She answered with a curious tone, her actions were obvious.

“Why? When I’m…” She cocked her head to the side and he froze. The curiosity in her expression stalled his brain, he’d prepared for anything but that. Anger, fear, discomfort, maybe even laughter. But that look, as if nothing was wrong. As if he hadn’t just stopped several tons of steel in its tracks. He exhaled, gripping the bridge of his nose. He told himself she just wanted the test answers. Either that or she was insane. Whatever the reason, at least she didn’t openly fear him.

“That’s”, he finally said, “…kind of a weird choice for not knowing what I wanted.”

“Well, you looked like a mint chip guy, so—”

“Nevermind.”, he said. “Let’s just… keep studying.”

Fia smiled, and Zack walked past her turning to leave the opposite end of the alley, away from the people.

“I’m going this way.”, he proclaimed.

“ Okay .” She said, looking down at the two ice creams she still had, she hurried after him. When she caught up, she pushed his ice cream into his face, causing him to recoil away. 

"At least try the ice cream.” She said, shooting another smile which sent a shock to his system. He staggered, not knowing if it would be possible; if he’d deserve it. With hesitance, he reached out and took hold of it. And he licked it. And it was good. They moved further through town until they reached the outskirts that connected to the ruins of the old Sector 4 slums, kept standing as a reminder of what came before. Zack continued to quiz her, finding her knowledge to be spotty but passable. She had an okay account of the Shinra golden age and the Wutai Cold War, but next to nothing about the Geostigma crisis and the Deepground Terrorist attacks. Fia did more teasing than actual studying, and Zack tolerated her despite his ever rising embarrassment. But he couldn’t bring himself to say it was unpleasant. Something did tip him off about her prodding. Like she wasn’t always teasing for the fun of it, but to gauge his reaction, to gather information. As if she was trying to fish for a soft
confession of something. Fia repeats what she’d just studied to Zack.

“ So… Wutai and Edge came into peace negotiations shortly after the ‘change in management’ for lack of a better word and we’ve been symbiotic ever since. Is that about, right?”

“You’ll definitely pass, yeah.” Zack crunched the last of his cone, looking at his watch, about a half hour left before he had to get back to his family. Fia narrows her eyes at him.

“Just pass, huh.”

“You’re lucky to get that. How do you not know the current standing mayor?” 

“I know him, I just can’t pronounce his name!” She grabs both sides of her head, frustrated.

“Uh huh. I’ll send you a study guide later, once you forget everything we talked about, tod—.” Glancing over at Fia to see her, not only, not paying attention, but staring downwards, transfixed by a flower in the ground. Risen from the concrete, a yellowed lily stood lilted in the shade. She crouched down beside the flower, Zack walking up behind her looking at it with his own eyes to see what was so special about it.  By all accounts, it was just an ordinary flower. He looks over at her, puzzled.

“You like flowers?” He says, walking over to get a better look at the flower.

“I hate ‘em.” She responded still staring at the flower, the bite of a grudge lay bare in her words. Zack furrowed his brow, questioning her intent in his mind.

“Hate them?”

“Yeah…” She turned to face him, a cold neutral face for a frame that a bright smile replaces. A full smile, reaching her closed eyes.

“Can’t you tell?” The smile was forced. Zack knew it in his bones. But why? Every time he thought he got a read on her, she switched gears. Either she was some kind of master manipulator, or she was constantly running from something. For what reason, Zack couldn’t piece together in the slightest. And why him? What was even so special about him? She was putting in so much effort to be closer to him, but they hadn’t so much as made introductions beforehand. The history exam was indeed coming up, but not for another few weeks. He’d gone along with it this whole time… honestly he didn’t really know why. Maybe he didn’t prefer to be alone but had just gotten used to it, this outlet giving him an out that he didn’t even know he needed. This made him feel a bit awkward, no, a bit embarrassed; he turned his gaze away from her just in case he was blushing. But despite himself, he thought on how he could keep the conversation going, and how to talk with her more. He’d taken the genie out of the bottle and couldn’t put it back in. 

“Well, I guess it’s good I didn't take us to Sector 5.” He turns to her slowly. “You’d have been so— ” But he was talking to no one; she disappeared. He looked around to find where she’d run off to, hearing a shuttering of metal coming from a hole in the barrier. ‘What the hell was she doing?!’ Zack thinks as he crouches down and crawls through after her. 

Once he’s out, he scanned his surroundings. A dirt trail tracked the inside that seemed to be a path into what was now grasslands punctuated by moss and ivy covered metal scraps. Past the path was an old town ruins. No, even accounting for the degradation, this couldn’t be considered a town, more like a collection. A large structure stuck out like a sore thumb, most of its front completely covered in ravenous plant life. And who should be at the top but Fia, using the plants as a tether to climb up and over. The grunts of her effort reverberates to the surrounding area with no one to hear it but Zack. This being probably the dumbest thing he’d ever witnessed, he ran to the building’s base.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” He shouted up at her, manic, confused, angry and a little excited. His heart pounding as she turned around, hitting him with a sly, devious grin.

“CLIMBING UP THIS BUILDING, WHAT'S IT LOOK LIKE I'M DOING?!” 

“YOU ARE—” He wrenched his emotions back into his chest. “YOU'RE GONNA GET HURT UP THERE!” Looking up at her near the top, she bends over backwards, hanging upside by one hand to look down at him with that same smile.

“YOU'D BETTER MAKE SURE I DON'T GET HURT, THEN!” Pulling herself back up and grabbing the vine to complete her climb, Zack was left awestruck. ‘So annoying.’ Her face had changed again. Zack was one step behind her just like before. Running over to the structure, he grabs hold of a handful of vines and looks up. Fia was out of sight, not even on the vine anymore. He looks around, a flimsy attempt to make sure none saw him as he decided to change gears. Releasing the vines, he eyes any obvious stepping points before taking off. He leaps, first, a slight angle to the left, a pause landing on a foot hold, then he tries to jump just far enough to grab on to the top of the ledge. He doesn’t make it, he overshoots it by enough to clear it with his legs which surprises him on the landing. A landing which he took with great ease.

With a breath, his focus returned to searching for Fia. This led him to her as she’s balancing over a metal beam between this building and another building with a slanted roof, a good 50 feet across. Running to the beam, he skidded to a stop upon reaching it.

“YOU’RE GONNA GET YOURSELF KILLED!”, he shouted across the gap. Shuffling to keep her balance, she turned, slowly, to look back at him. She was panting, sweating, still smiling.

“WE'VE ONLY GOT HALF AN HOUR LEFT RIGHT?! WHAT’S A DATE WITHOUT A LITTLE EXCITEMENT?!” ‘So infuriating!’ Not only did she overhear his dad but she was counting the clock. He trembled. Deep in his core, he trembled. What was before him defied his logic, his reason. Did she truly have a death wish? What was the point of goading him like this? He should just leave, right? Why was he entranced by her? The game would be over if he stopped playing, so why can’t he? He jumped onto the beam sending shockwaves across its length. He held still, nervous, looking forward to see if the shockwave affected Fia. Hadn’t so much as reacted to it, only side-eying him, briefly. She jumped on to the roof of the connecting building, a sharp, loud, concerning impact reverberating from the forlorn metal rooftop.

The smile she showed him this time seemed less forced, yet still holding. 

“HURRY UP, OR DO YOU JUST LIKE EATING MY DUST?!” 

The constant shouting across the chasm annoyed him so he didn’t dignify the question with a response. 

Shifting her gaze skyward, the abandoned slice of the upper plate took total hold of her view. It was a spectacle, such a technological marvel, the sheer mass alone boggled the mind. Several million tons of metal and concrete used to construct this giant pizza. A monolith industrial innovation that itself housed the foremost innovative group of all time. And it was all ego. Poor people left to fend for themselves in slums as working class folk gave their lives away to kiss the boots of the elite. The Pizza wasn’t just a technical marvel, it was a display of power, a constant reminder of everyone’s station. Those precious few elite were fools and fops all, each grasping for more powers, more money, more control. Fia gives a half hearted chuckle before fixing her gaze back on Zack. He was about half way across the beam.

“Can you believe people used to live here?” She scoffed, looking around at everything, a showgirls spin to take the whole picture into perspective.

“Midgar, the greatest city on—”

There's a crack. Then she fell. The roof had given way and she was falling. Fia felt her stomach drop as she suddenly fell. Fear engulfed her being as the light of day became a skylight; a pinprick of light in the darkness and then… the light came from in front of her, and Zack had her in his arms. They spun, they slowed to a stop midair, then descended gradually.  They were lowered by his power. He stared down at her, a mix of worry, anger and relief. She stared up at him, a mix of shock and fear soon replaced by shock and elation. 

“My hero.” Hands wrapped around Zack in a hug as they lower down. Zack is having none of her, right now.

“You could’ve died!” His emotions reached a fever pitch. She overwhelmed him. Infuriated him with her lack of fear. 

“Oh, I knew my guardian angel would keep me safe.”

“I’m not an angel.” He said, the quiver in his voice revealing his turmoil. Letting her down from his arms, she stood on his feet as they descend. He supported her stance, placing his tender hands around her back.

“I’m not afraid of you.” Staring directly into his eyes, her face, fully serious for the first time. 

“You should be—”

“I’m not.” Not even inquiring why. No wall could stop her. 

And he said nothing. Because he couldn’t. He didn’t want to. His temperance, emboldened by his fears and doubts, was all that stopped him from feeling; from connecting. To someone. To anyone. It was for the good of everyone, he’d thought. They’d fear him, rightfully so. He was a monster. And yet here she stood, fearless. The walls he’d built to hold himself were cracked, but not broken. He centers himself, he could indulge in her, but he knows the truth. For now, the power he held, must be attended to by his own restraint. 

They’d been staring into each other’s eyes for some time, their gaze only broken upon landing onto what was once ground level of the building. The hole he punched through the building shone light on them, casting a lengthy shadow of the two as one.

“We…” He labored; blushing as he found the strength to avert his gaze. “…should go.”

Fia rolled her eyes, but relents willingly. 

“You’re my ride.” Her sassy smile had returned. He’d missed it? He did. But his face lost all color when he checked his phone. He was late. 

“We gotta go!” He ran to the adjacent wall, looking for what could pass for a door. Fia furrowed her brow over at him. She looked up at the hole he’d made, then back at him, confused about the logic. 

“Pretty sure you could just jump back through the ‘window’.”

“I already found the door, come o—” He absolutely did not find the door. He thought it was a door, then he made it a door. Getting flustered had cost him his focus.

He can only cringe, his face scrunching taut before frantically beckoning for her. Snickering to herself as she followed him outside. He was a teddy bear, with grizzly bear strength. She adored him for that and she had just met him. Zack stuck out his hand.

“It was nice meeting you.” He jutted his hand out awkwardly for Fia to shake, who looked at him, puzzled.

“So, you want me to walk back?”

“Nope, you’re right! You’re coming with me!” He looked to and fro, frantically, pointing in a direction after some deliberation. 

“It’s that way.”

Without a further word, Fia jumped straight into his unsuspecting arms. He caught her, loading back in surprise, desperately trying to keep her from falling. With a groan, he accepted that he’ll be her chauffeur and her horse.

“I can’t stand you!” And she laughed, full and true. And that mades Zack happy for some reason.

Chapter Text

Of course, he ran fast too. So fast he was damn near flying. Fia held tight to him as he raced down the grassy path, the wind whipping so hard, it forced her eyes shut. Desperately, she fought to keep her eyes open, to see everything, to experience it. With what little time she could experience with her eyes open, her surroundings were a blur of green, yellow, blue and rust brown. They did a loop-de-loop once, she could’ve sworn. She couldn’t believe his power. Couldn’t believe he hid it like he did. |

Zack was pacing himself, careful not to trip or fall, but far faster than he’d ever run with someone watching. He felt lighter. Freer. Anxious, too. He was supposed to be there 15 minutes ago. And he’d also neglected to tell his date that they were actually headed deeper into Midgar. The old Sector 5 was their destination, and in stark contrast to Sector 4, it was maintained. It was still abandoned and aging but the vegetation was pruned and crimped back. Fia couldn't believe it when they slowed down. The city had put effort into caring for this place? You couldn’t just get from Edge to Sector 5, you needed to cut through Sector 4 at least. Fia’s thoughts are interrupted by Zack putting her down. 

“Ride’s over?” She said, dissatisfied at their moment coming to an end.

“Yes!” His answer shot out the split second her question ended. She laughed. 

“What, embarrassed your parents will see you carrying a girl around, big guy?” She feigned offense before prodding him with her finger. His annoyance disintegrated into dread as he heard the last thing he’d wanted to hear.

“Too late for that.” The voice of his mother from behind the remains of a shop, sitting on a stool, legs crossed, arms folded. She stands, walking over to them, disapproval etched in her face. Zack hangs his head low as she approaches, hands pocketed. She scans the two of them like she was looking at weaknesses in their form before setting her sights on Fia. 

“And what’s your name, young lady?” Her voice stern and commanding respect.

“My name is Fia, ma’am.” Polite and humble, it almost broke Zack’s neck. He had to verify what he heard with his own eyes. Seeing her bow to his mother was the cherry on top. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Tifa holds stern looking into Fia’s eyes for what felt like forever. Looking between the two, it seemed they were engaged in a stand off, more deadly than the one he’d had with Zack. Tifa breaks the physical tension by raising her hand; laying it firmly on Fia’s shoulder. 

“Please…” she gets a grip on Fia’s other shoulder “…take care of my son!”

“Ok ! We are far from the threshold I’m comfortable with!” Zack said, a false joyful tone to mask his discomfort and completely red in the face.

“I’ll do my very best, ma’am.” She bowed her head once more.

“If you do not stop now, I will leave this conversation manually.” His voice shambled pitifully out his mouth. He was truly on the verge of cracking. 

“Hush now. You’re just lucky you aren’t the only one who’s late.” She said as a sleek black car pulled up behind them as if on cue. Out stepped a well dressed man in a two piece black suit, and matching pants, shoes and tie. Decently tall, but scraggly, carrying himself like he’d just done the past 48 hours on caffeine, and hope. Despite that, his pace was moderate if not a little brisk. Fia’s eyes widened at his appearance, and she couldn’t believe she was the only one in shock. The mayor of Edge, Reeve Tuesti, was attending whatever event Zack’s family was holding. 

“Reeve.” Tifa greeted him like a parent catching their child coming home past curfew. Reeve reacted like he got shot, his eyes bulging quickly, he blinked hard twice before pinching his nose and turning to Tifa.

“I am so sorry, I’m late. The meeting ran long, and then traffic was terrible an—”

“It’s fine Reeve, really.” Tifa interrupts him, patting him on the shoulder to comfort him. She pulls Reeve down to whisper in his ear. 

“Just so long as you understand… the consequences.” Sharp realization and distress rippled across his face as his addled mind began to put the pieces together.

“It’s not Kbbq night.” He said, in full denial, but he knew he was wrong.

“It is Kbbq night.”

Reeve covers his face with his hands, muffling the ‘FUCK!’ he couldn’t contain in his heart. A ghastly expression dons his face as he pulls his hands down.

“Ok…so I’m—” Pulling out a flip phone from his pocket, he fiddles with the buttons for a few moments before placing it next to his ear. His eyes fall on Fia, brows furrow in confusion but not acting on it before the call comes through. Fia still looks at him awestruck that he would even be here, let alone the sequence of events that just transpired.

“Hey. I’ll need a coffee—espresso in about an hour… Thank you.” He hangs up, Fia turns to Zack, mouth still agape.

“Your mom knows the mayor?!” A harsh whispered interrogation.

“From a long time ago.” He said without a hint of sarcasm.

“And you didn’t think to mention he would be here before—.” Reeve had walked up to the two in Fia’s blind spot, startling her. She keeps it contained as best she could.

“Hi, Mayor Twisty— I mean Mayor Toostie— I MEAN—” 

“Just Reeve is fine.” He extended a hand for her to shake and she nervously obliged, her nervousness made manifest in her shaking hand. “Are you—”

“She’s a friend of Zack’s.” Cloud’s voice calls over from a wooded path out of the way, interrupting Reeve’s query. He was shaded from the sun, his silhouette leaving the shadow as he stepped into the light. He beckons them into the path and as a group the four follow him down the way. Cloud stared down at Fia once they reached him, an odd look on his face. As if he was trying to discern if he’d seen her somewhere before, yet decided it wasn’t worth too much effort. They walk in silence, an air of tension in the air. Fia seemed tense around Reeve, who in turn seemed like he wanted to die. Zack was desperate to not become the topic of conversation again by either of his parents. Tifa seemed a bit pained but she was holding herself together as best they could. Cloud took the task of comforting her, but every now and again made glances at Fia. They exited the wooded trail, which opened into breathtaking majesty. They were elevated, a lazy river of clear teal in front of them that shone gold in the setting sunlight. The path descended by a short set of steps, then diverged. One path led to an old house, a quaint thing that was grand yet understated. Its color faded from the years; its architecture was a unique sight. The other path led down a wooden bridge over the water leading over to a canvas of blended color. Reds, blues, yellows, whites, lilacs; flowers of different shapes and sizes flowing in the subtle breeze, shifted warm by the faint golden glow of the sunlit grass. It was walled by a similar rusted metal architecture that could be seen in the other sector, but free of vegetation. Birds chirping, water flowing, wind whistling; it could give pause to anyone on their first time, and Fia was no exception. Zack jostled her back to reality and she couldn’t even muster a retort in response. The group steps down and crosses the bridge, the river exudes a fresh, earthy smell which gave way to a harmony of flowery bliss. Further back within the color were these markers, wooden stakes standing tall; unbending, one of which was wreathed by a crown of yellow lilies. Barret was standing with a woman by these stakes as the group pulled up. Next to them, Marlene and Denzel stood somber, talking sparingly to one another. The group makes its way up the bend, Barret and the woman: Elmyra, mother of Aerith, turn to greet them. 

“Young man.” She strides forward, a voice even more stern than Tifa’s was minutes earlier. Her hair fully grayed and tied in a long braid; wearing a green button up underneath overalls gave her the look of someone quite old fashioned. “I sincerely hope you have an explanation as to why you’re so late!” She stands in front of Zack, arms crossed, she was cross, for sure. Cloud and Tifa continue forward, leaving him to fend for himself. Zack rubs the back of his head meekly but it’s Fia who answers for him.

“I’m so sorry ma’am.” She bows in much the same manner she did earlier. “It was my fault. We—.”

“Actually, it was mine.” Zack interrupts, staggering Fia in place, her well laid plan to take the heat, squandered. “We were studying and I lost track of time.” Respectfully, he bows down to Fia’s level. “It won’t happen again.”

Elmyra glowered down at the two of them before cracking a smile.

“It’s good that you know not to lie to me.” The two unbow and stand tall, Fia had her eyes on Zack. “But I was talking to him .” She points her finger at the involuntary insomniac standing behind them. Reeve points to himself in a daze, a real stooge act. “Yes, you. We fit these get-togethers around your supposed schedule, the least you could do is make that schedule accurate!”

“I know, I know, I just—”

“Save it.” She puts up a stopping hand. “You do good work, we just want a call next time.” 

“Understood.” Now he was the one bowing. Elmyra simply turns away.

“Come on, let’s get started.” She said, calling the group forward. They stood in front of the markers and it was clear up close that they were graves; remembrances to the people precious to those attending. The graves were six in number, marked for Jessie, Biggs, Wedge, the original Zack, Vincent, and Aerith. Though Vincent was technically MIA, it had been so long it felt right to remember him this way. Everyone stepped forward and spoke a few words for the departed. First Tifa, then Barret, then Elmyra, then Marlene, then Reeve, then Denzel, and finally Cloud. Each spent their time how they needed to. Some spent more time on certain graves than others. Some still cried despite the years. But none took more time than Cloud. He spent time talking to all of them: the departed. He ends his speech with this:

“To the departed, those taken from us, those who gave their lives so that we may live, may you live on… in our memories.”

He nods and everyone starts to disperse, breaking into groups that chat amongst themselves. This leaves Fia and Zack alone, an air of awkwardness between them. His face apologetic, he turns to her

“Sorry, it’s not a very…” He pauses in the moment, she gives him an out.

“It’s okay, I can see why this would be important. Sorry I held you up.” She looks up at him, a glint in her eye.

“If I really wanted to”, he said, with a smug grin, the first he’d shown her. “I’d have caught up with you.” 

“Oh, it’s like that, huh?!” Her face had a dangerous expression, one of manic excitement and veiled by her ever deceiving cuteness. 

“Always has been.” He returned her glare with an unbothered look. Then, he softens. “Though, I guess regardless it was a down turn.” Her expression falls to, to one curious. Gesturing to the ground around him, her gaze following his hands. “All the flowers.”, he finally explained.

“I was… joking. Obviously.” She blustered, turning away from him. Zack crouches down over his namesake's grave. He’d always wondered what it would be like to know him. All the stories made him sound like a superman. How did he measure up? How could he measure up? He was a hero.

“You’re not too far off.” A feminine whisper likened more to the wind then any person. It wasn’t Fia, he knew it. It wasn’t a voice he’d ever heard before. He turned to Fia, bewildered.

“Did you… hear that?”

“Hear what?” 

Zack looked around to see if he could find the phantom stranger. Fia thought it was strange, but paid it little mind. Her gaze returned to what she thought would be one of the graves and saw a flower instead. The hand it was in was a woman’s. A woman she’d known for sure wasn’t next to her seconds ago, nor had she been here for the service. She seemed about 5 years older than him, a pink dress covered in a faded red half jacket, her braided brown hair resembled Elmyra. There was something off about her, like her form wasn’t affected by the world around it. The light didn’t hit her right, or maybe the breeze didn’t flow about her, but through her. (First Edition) The woman gave her a gentle smile; a burgeoning want to take the flower she held overtook her. Her lips moved and there was no sound, but Fia internalized what they meant. 

“You took the flower from Sector 4?” Zack said, startling her a little. She darted her attention to him, then back at the flower.

“What? No… I just—” She turned to where the woman had been. She was gone. The two were left with no answers, just confusion. And warmth. They started down the hill. The two of them were awestruck by the gift, unable to take their eyes off it. Cloud stops the two as they reach the bottom.

“Where did you get that?” Cloud said, looking at the flower, a nostalgic gleam in his eye.

“There was some girl,” He looked back at the spot he was just at. “…she gave it to her?” He said, inferring based on what little information he had.

“Did she now?” He placed his cane down and leaned over it, an amused smirk moving across his face for the second time today. 

“What?” Zack asked.

“Nothing.” Cloud said, confusing Zack even more. He looked almost mischievous, like he was in on some elaborate joke Zack wasn’t aware of. “Just odd that she could have visited this whole time. IT’S ONLY BEEN 17 YEARS!” His abrupt shouting got the attention of everyone, they shot him concerned looks. Tifa made her way over to see what’s going on.

“What’s gotten into you?” She said, worried and confused. Cloud motioned to the flower Zack had just given to Fia. 

“Our little flower girl paid Zack a visit.” Tifa squints, her eyes focusing on the flower in Fia’s hand, her eyes widened after a second. 

“Oh my god!” her words a squee, she bounced up and down like a schoolgirl at a concert. She looked at Cloud, “That’s so wonderful!”

“It is, isn’t it? Such an Aerith move too.” The words hit Zack like a freight train. It was her. He turned back to look upon the top of the hill, too late. She was long gone. Tifa preps her hands to shout. “NEXT TIME VISIT US, TOO!” Tifa bounded merrily over to a disquieted Elmyra. She explains herself, pointing over to Fia and Zack. Elmyra’s eyes widened after a time. She weeps; she weeps tears she held for a near eternity. She cried in grief she’d bottled, she cried in envy at not being chosen, she cried in joy at knowing her daughter was still there. Somehow, she was still there, despite all the years that had passed. She hadn’t faded into a memory. The group entered a hug, Barret wrapping up Marlene, Denzel, Tifa and Elmyra. Fia was stunned speechless by the display; that seemed to be happening a lot recently. Such a simple thing as a flower could spark so much. She just assumed Zack had hallucinated or maybe mistook her for someone else. But to them it was more than just a trick of the mind; not a fantasy. It was real. They all shone in that moment, in unique colors harmonizing when they stood together. 

These people, they were… flowers. 

Zack spotted her smiling. Was this the one? It surely was. This smile, for the first time today, was truly genuine. 

Evening gave way to night and those that remained of Avalanche retreated from the old Sector 5 slums back to home base, the once new, Seventh Heaven. A lot had changed since the day Tifa had reopened. Management for one thing, since she’d become a grandmaster, Marlene had taken up the reins. That was Tifa’s gift to her, after all, though she couldn’t truly run the place until a short while ago. The Heaven had a few new gizmos, notably, mobile grills, that fit snug inside the center length of the tables. Drummed up good business on the weekends and birthdays. It was closed tonight of course, this party was Avalanche only. Plus one. Zack thought nothing of it, if she was there for the remembrance, she could be there for the after party. The party had two tables, a “grown ups” table and a “kids’ table. Cloud was recounting one of his earliest moments with Barret; the whole time his storytelling was so lively despite his near deadpan delivery.

“He says, “Your fees, and a little extra for your exemplary service.” and then he kicks me out. Calls it an ‘avalanche only get together’. I hadn’t seen Tifa in 5 years. She hadn’t seen me in 7. Don’t ask me how, it’s complicated. This guys telling me, I gotta leave. You know what I did?” He paused for effect. 

“What did you do?” Elmyra said, actually giving the question weight.

“I walked right out the damn door, what did you think I did?” Dry as ever, the group erupted in laughter with Elmyra just shaking her head. “You’ve met me before right?”

“I figured you were odd, I never knew it was that bad.” Elmyra said, practically flabbergasted. “I don’t know how you survived.” Cloud takes a drink from his tankard, shrugging in agreement with the sentiment.

“Speakin’ a survivin’,” Barret interjected. “...someone wake up Reeve, he fell asleep again.”

Reeve was leaning back in his chair, slack jawed, eyes closed and snoring. The music drowned it out some, but it was audible enough to be noticed. The tongs in his hand were about to slip out his lax hand.

“Oh, leave him be.” Tifa said, only a little worried about her friend’s health. “We can rib him for it later. Besides, there’s no way he was keeping track of time.” 

“I got it.” Cloud declared, his eyes on the ribeye on the grill. Elmyra side-eyed him.

“Are you quite sure?” She questioned his judgement. Cloud responds, pointing from his right to his left. “Medium well, medium, mid rare, mid rare, rare.” He pointed to each in succession with confidence. A minute passed. Cloud took each piece and passed them around. Elmyra looked down at her plate, eyebrow raised as she cut into the meat. 

“Perfectly cooked.”, she shot him a smirk. “You do have your talents.”

At the other table, Zack and Fia sat opposite Marlene and Denzel, finally having a real chance to catch up. And they caught up. The ‘Remember when’s, the ‘We’re you there for’s, the ‘Oh, that was you!’s. Turns out, they’d been in the same class since they were in grade 4. Just a couple of ships passing in the night, with a near decade of near misses, absolutely through someone’s lack of trying. They made hours into minutes and minutes into seconds. After they’d stuffed themselves silly, they made the porch out front their spot to breathe. 

“Thanks for today.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” Zack replied, sipping some tea. “You got about a month before the test. You don’t review the material, none of today is gonna matter.” 

“Ok, then I’ll just swing by again.”

“I can just send you the gui—” 

“How ‘bout tomorrow?” Not even entertaining the idea of staying away from her. They were far past that. “Besides…I kinda need help in… other subjects.”

“…You are in despair.” He shook his head. 

Near hoarse from the talking, so much time had passed, the two of them simply enjoying their company outside on the porch. Fia stares down at her flower, like she’d never received a gift before. She said she hated flowers. The vitriol felt so real. He snatched the flower from her hand leaving her looking up at him in shock, a silent ‘That’s mine’ on her face. He threads the flower stem into her hair and smiles.

“It suits you.” 

Her face flushed red, not ready for the sudden compliment, especially not from him. She was vulnerable. She worked so hard to push down his walls, she failed to realize her own walls were so low. Their eyes meet, and the world falls away. Rising to meet him, and he lowered to meet her. They moved closer to one another, unconsciously, bridging the boundaries between their walls. Their lips touch, and Fia’s phone rings. A demonic scowl possessed her face looking down at her phone, livid at the interruption. Then, she saw who it was calling her, a dull gloom rolled over her eyes. She answered the call.

“Hey… District 7… Right now ?…” Her face gnarled before she hangs up without so much as a ‘goodbye’.

“Folks waiting up?” Zack said concerned. She pointed a finger gun to her head and pulled the trigger, blowing her figurative brains out. “I could walk you home.” He offered.

“Thanks, big guy,” She averted her gaze, somber in tone and face. A long white car pulls up, in the middle of her sentence. “…but my pumpkin chariot awaits.” She took a step down from the porch, and paused before turning around, jumping up and planting a kiss on Zack’s cheek. He’s left rubbing his cheek as she waved a farewell, hurried to the car and that was that. Zack was left alone on that porch. To feel. To process. He looked up at the sky, the suite of stars lighting up the night sky. And wondered if he would see her again.

Fia sat cross legged in the car, the man next to her silhouetted in darkness. She leaned against the car door, a discontented face gazing listlessly out the window as the city passed them by. The man’s muffled voice comes in clearer and clearer as Fia struggled to ignore him. 

 “…were told repeatedly not to engage with him.”

“Thought you could use the help.” She said dismissively into the window, not sparing him a glance.

“And what’s this, then?” He ventured his hand forth, attempting to grab her flower. She grabs the hand hard, lightning crackling around her face as she glares at the man, at Rufus Shinra. He’d aged well considering all that happened, his blonde hair streaked gray but still the same smug superiority reigned on his face. Even despite his atonement, there’s still Shinra in him at the end of the day.

“We have him under surveillance. Any unnecessary additions to that would only be detrimental to that. But you knew that already.” Fia’s glare didn’t relent, the lights the crackling of electricity granting a layer of visibility to her wrath. “May I have my hand back?” He asked, his tone mistaking the innocent question for an insult. She releases his hand, he pulls it back, rubbing it like she bruised it.

“His existence gives Sephiroth an avenue of return. He’s dangerous, Sofia.”

“Yeah?” A sharp exhale leaves her nose and she turned back to the window. “…so am I.”

Chapter Text

Gray… gray sky poke through the window into a room of lack. That’s what Fia awoke to every day. A big, lofty room devoid of love. A rich man's view of a good living space, one who knew nothing of parental love. It wasn’t his fault, he was simply failing at a task beyond his comprehension. His father treated him as a toy to be molded, not a child. She didn’t hold it against him. But she did hold the potential threat screening, and the constant surveillance of every move, every second of every day against him. For her own safety, of course. His idea of fatherly love was keeping her at arms length, lecture her every now and again, and having men in black suits act as her babysitters. And funnily enough, they did a decent job. They were caretaker/bodyguard/go-getter, whatever they needed, should the need arise. But it’s hard to make friends when you’ve got mean looking bodyguards hanging around you after school. By happenstance, these bodyguards had also been tasked with monitoring Zack, son of Cloud and Tifa, and watching them both put a strain on their numbers. So she decided to make things a bit easier for them. If the Turks needed to split their attention between her and Zack, she’d just combine the two. Of course, the new radius would have to accommodate a wider berth if they didn’t want to run afoul of Sephiroth jr. or his parents. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Nearly had a collective heart attack when they saw her fall, but luckily, she had her guardian angel with her. And just so long as Rufus didn’t find out, no harm no foul, right? 

Early morning, right before dawn — the easiest way to get past prying eyes. Today, she spent extra time getting dressed. This was a day she needed to be ready for, doing herself up in a flashy summer style. Being the daughter of a Shinra, even a disgraced Shinra, privileged her with the best wardrobe money could buy. She needed it. She wanted to look cute, she wanted to stand out, she wanted to, at least for a moment, make believe. She wasn’t trapped like a bird in a cage, just for today. 

The little birdy snuck out her window in the still of dawn; she knew the perfect path to slip through. She made it to the highway and started walking. Just to be further from the cage, not actually get to town, it was too far. Just the thought, all kinds of ne’er-do-wells could come by and scoop her up. Exactly what she was hoping for. After about a quarter mile, a truck came down the road behind her. Hearing the engine roaring behind her, she turned around and stuck out her thumb: the hitchhiker’s signal. The truck slowed to a crawl right in front of her, she jogged to catch up, and hopped into the passenger seat.

“Hey Rude.” She said plainly, getting herself comfortable in the seat.

“Ma’am.” A curt professional reply. Anyone who’d known him for the last two decades would swear he’d not aged a day. Only a pair of wrinkles marking his forehead gave any indication that he’d grown any older. “Gonna run off with that boy again today?” He asked. Her face sported a devious smirk as she turned to him.

“Oh no!” Her voice, an old timey, sing-songy cartoon parody of an innocent girl character. “I was just going for a jaunt around town, pick up a few bibs and bobs and go straight home, sir. I wouldn’t dream of seeing a boy , especially one I’ve been told not to see by daddy dearest!” The amount of faux innocence and sarcasm dripping from each word could fill an ocean full.

“We’ve been over this.”

“Like 8 times.” Her voice returned to normal with a bite of sarcasm.

“You’ve done this 10 times, actually.”

“Huh? Guess forgot a few.” It’d been about a month since Zack and Fia had their chance encounter. They saw each other at school too, of course, but these personal visits were not infrequent. And it was this gambit that made it all possible. Another rock and a hard place moment for the Turks. Either risk her getting kidnapped, or taxi her wherever she wants, which is to Little Sephiroth Jr. 

“It’s 11 if you count the first time.” A voice chimes in from the backseat.

“Hi Reno.” She turned back to greet the red haired bodyguard. 

“Hi~ Fia.” He returns a cheery wave. Now he’d faced the sands of time. His youthful features gave way to a more refined and matured face. His scarlet mane had begun to sprout streaks of gray and his eyes sunk. The duo had been partners since before Fia was born. They’d told her stories of facing off with Avalanche, the near end of the world, and the second resurrection of Sephiroth. Reno was also the one who blabbed about Zack and their mission to monitor him. So really this was his fault. “You really seein’ this kid just to get away from us? Or is it that we tell you you shouldn’t, and that makes you want to?” 

“I like how none of these options leave any room for me to actually like him.” Her positing this very unlikely possibility had the two looking at each other.

“Do you?” They both ask in unison. She scoffs.

“‘Course not!” She sunk into her seat, crossing her arms and putting her face to the window. “I’m a Shinra, remember? Love isn’t part of the big picture.” The two Turks gave each a look but shrugged it off. Not their place to get involved in this. It was about two hours and change drive before they were navigating the freeways of the city. Following a well traveled route to her destination: District 7’s Seventh Heaven. She ditched the truck almost immediately upon arrival, a simple, “Don’t wait up.”, was all she afforded the Turks. Her dim demeanor lightened the second she started up the porch steps of Seventh Heaven. Once at the door, she knocked and waited, idly shifting left and right; a little dance in place. Out of the corner of her eye, she took notice of the truck she came in on slowly round a corner out of sight. The door opened finally with Zack’s mother, Tifa, standing on the other side.

“Oh, hey Fia.” She greeted her cheerily, but suspiciously blocking her view inside, a slight clambering coming from inside. “Welcome back.”

“Hi Mrs. Strife.” She returned her energy in spades. “Is Zack home?”

“Um…” She paused for a beat, looking back inside then returning her sights to Fia. “Yeah! He’s just… waking up now, probably.” With a seeming go ahead, she stepped out of the way to let her inside. “Please, come in.”

Fia takes the opportunity and steps into the bar. It was almost as familiar as her birdcage at this point. The particular smell, alcohol and wood varnish with a subtle flowery scent. There was a new aroma she hadn’t got a chance to pinpoint before spotting Zack’s dad, sitting in a booth off to the side.

“Good morning, Mr. Strife.” The greeting she gives is much the same as first.

“Just Cloud.” He responded, blunt as ever. Her finger reached her chin, an innocent gesture.

“Maybe Mr. Cloud?” Fia’s offered compromise elicits a facepalm but no further argument.

“You’re makin’ me feel so old here.” 

“Oh, pay him no mind.” Tifa waves away Cloud’s indignity. Fia has a giggle at the old married couple before eyeing the bar counter. She thought she’d smelled something good. A plate stacked high with pancakes, thick fluffy ones. The smell had her interest, but the sight had her attention. During their second session, Fia’s stomach growled something fierce while they were studying. She’d gotten a breakfast every time she came over after that. The creator of which was a topic of much heated debate. But this was different. Last time she was here, she gushed about a Wutai pancake shop she saw in a magazine. They made these super fluffy pancakes and she found them adorable. And what could be found on the plate but pancakes fluffy just like them.

Cloud stood up, his attention on Tifa, “We’ve got somewhere to be, right?”

“Hmmm?” Tifa looked over at Cloud with a curious look. Clout shot a nod at the steps, which apparently was enough to get Tifa to pick up what he was putting down. “O-oh! I completely forgot, we do have to go do that.” Her voice, a poor act feigning surprise. “We better be off! Bye, Fia!” Tifa waved a goodbye as she opened the door to leave, Cloud went to follow, stopping briefly by Fia. 

“He worked really hard on this one.” Cloud whispered in her ear as he passed. Butterflies fluttered about in her stomach when she heard that. She knew the whole time, each breakfast had been like watching someone who’d never cooked before slowly get better. That didn’t fit anyone better than him. As she walked over to the bar, footsteps creaked against the stairs coming down. The subtle sheen of his silver hair announced his presence into the bar hall.

“You still comin’ by here?” Zack said, maintaining his air of nonchalance right up until she jumped him. Ran her whole body into him right when he appeared. 

“Hey, big guy!” The nickname from their first encounter had stuck. It had everything she wanted in it, it was a compliment, it was playful, and it got him off guard. And it certainly had the desired effect, this time. 

“F-Fia!” Zack puts his hands around her shoulders in an attempt to get her off him. One that failed when she looked up at him. In that cute way she did when she looked up at him through her eyebrows. She’d hit him with that one a couple of times to knock him off balance. He was helpless for a beat before she raised her phone to his face.

“Read 'em and weep!” On the phone her test scores were pulled up, the prominent one in view being her contemporary history final.

“93? Wow!” He looked down at her,  “That mean you’re gonna let the professor’s wife out of whatever basement you have her stashed in?”

“Oh no, she’s gotta go.” She said plainly, drawing a line across her neck with her finger. She backed off of him a little bit. “Gave him way too many chances. Some people just don’t learn.” Shaking her head to sell her sorry state of affairs. 

“I tried.” Zack relented, only giving a small chuckle as he made his way over to the bar, pouring himself some oatmeal to cook up. She went to sit in the stool right next to him, the pancakes she spotted earlier sitting right in front of her. They were dusted with powdered sugar and topped with a pad of butter. Eyeing the spread with curiosity, she aimed her suspicions at her dining partner.

“What’s this?” Lifting up her plate to draw his attention. He paused briefly.

“…Food.” His curt reply steals a laugh from her.

“Ha! Food, hu—”

“Marlene made it. She wanted to congratulate you on passing.” Zack was trying to head off Fia’s train of thought before she could get wise. 

“Marlene?” But she was too cunning. “Really? ‘Cause, I think the only one I talked about these pancakes to~,” She stretched the ‘to’ long enough to make him squirm. “…is you , right?”

“…” The silence spoke for itself. Baring holes into the side of Zack’s head as he tried desperately to avoid her gaze. He knew she was hitting him with that smile. That smug, sly, knowing smile that trapped him, bound him in her spell. He forgot to pour the hot water. He was eating dry oats. Dry oats dusted in sugar. Having made her point, she turns to her food. “Well, let’s dig in!” She douses the pancakes in some syrup, cutting a wide triangle out of the stack and cramming it into her mouth. Instantly, her eyes widened, the buttery smooth taste of the pancakes, the sweetness of the syrup and powdered sugar, the creaminess of the butter all harmonizing into a rich and decadent bite she couldn’t help but moan in satisfaction.

“Oh my god, I would kiss the chef who made this!” The exclamation gets Zack stuck again, his fork hitting the bowl, loose from his slack hand. They’d only been together for a few minutes and half of that time he spent stunlocked. Only broken out of his daze by a poke to his cheek. “You gotta try this!” She said, a fork tipped with pancake she intended to ram into his throat.

“Knock it off!” Insisting on giving him a taste, she pushed forward, causing Zack to lean back on the stool. 

“I’m serious, it’s so ~ good!” She pushed a little too far, losing her balance and falling hard into Zack.

“AH!” A cry rang out as she clattered into him, the impact of which was so sudden it knocked both of them over. He made sure to take the brunt of the impact, Fia landed on top of him. The impact shook the hanging lights above them and made a cup tip over behind the bar. Zack looked down at Fia, a tinge of worry in his heart. The two looked into each other's eyes, faces flushed. 

“Are you okay?” He worried.

“Yeah”, she replied. “I’m okay.” Zack started a sigh of relief that’s choked out when she rams her fork down his open gullet. She looked up at him and smiled that cheeky smile. 

“See! Isn’t it so good?!” 

It was.

Outside, a peeping tom Tifa was stealing glances at the couple inside, giggling and squealing as the scene unfolded through one of the bar's windows. Cloud stood off to the side, leaning on the wall. He looked off to his side at Tifa, eyeing her suspiciously. This behavior was out of character for her. She was normally so… modest.

“Oh my god, they’re so precious!” Her eyes were glued to the scene through the glass, covering her mouth to not alert them of her presence.

“Remember when you doubted me?” 

“I never doubted you.” She turned her head for a moment to give Cloud a glare, a glare which quickly breaks from embarrassment. “I-I was just surprised.” Her eyes returned to the scene inside. “That’s all.”

“Uh huh.” Cloud wasn’t immune to the temptation either, sneaking a peek above Tifa. “You think he knows to use protection?”

“Cloud!” She shouted, covering her mouth as if to take back the mistake. He paid it no mind.

“It’s a lot of responsibility.” He said plainly.

“We could…” She paused for a beat, biting her lip with an odd glint, avoiding eye contact. Her face was like a hot iron in a furnace growing redder and redder as she continued. “…help. If it came to that.” Realization hits Cloud like a truck. He steeled his resolve, moving forward to Tifa and grabbing her by the hand. 

“Ok, we gotta go.” Her resistance was a sign that she was almost gone. He had to act now. “C’mon!” Grabbing her by the waist, Cloud picked her up and placed her on his shoulder and began carrying her off. 

“No! Wait! Cloud!” Tifa struggled against the effort, not wanting to leave her… elicit activity. Fia and Zack could hear the squabbling of the supposed departees fade after a time. They looked over confused and flush faced. Fia speaks up first.

“Um, I think—”

“Please don’t.” Zack interrupts her, embarrassed beyond comprehension at his parents looking in on them. “Nothing happened, okay?”

“Really~.” She replied with a sly smile, mustering the gusto to face him. “Nothing happened?” Zack avoided the question like the plague, a lull forming where an answer would have gone. He broke the silence, asking a seemingly obvious question. 

“You gonna get off me?” In response to the question, she leaned forward, resting her arms on his chest to cement her mount.

“Make me!” A cocky grin lined her face with mischief in her eyes.

“Oh my god.” He groaned, seeing now he’d have to play another one of her games. 

“Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do?” Her sword, a repetitive taunt, a goading call to action. And he had the perfect shield.

“Have it your way.”, he planted his heels into the floor, curling his toes to gain purchase. With raw strength, he peeled himself and Fia off the ground, standing up like a sunflower receiving sunlight for the first time in hours. Once standing, Fia had no choice but to stand of her own power, pouting at the imposition.

“Hmph! You’re no fun!” If there was one thing she couldn’t stand about him, it was that caution. That hesitation. He was free. Immovable when he wanted to be, unstoppable when he wanted to be. He could do anything, none could stop him, maybe not even his parents. And yet, no one needed to. He stopped himself all on his own. Every movement, down to the subconscious twitches were measured and steady. So that nothing got broken, whether he cared about it, or not. And that infuriated her. She’d grown used to her bird cage, begrudgingly. The watchers, the monitoring, the lack of connection. These were all things she put up with because of someone else — her father. But here he was, putting those same bars around himself, on purpose. She wanted, no, she needed to get him out of the cage. By any means necessary.

The two finished the breakfast nobody made, sitting in each other’s company. Fia makes a face as a question formed in her mind.

“Question:” She said, raising her hand like they were in school. “If I had failed the final, would there still have been pancakes here for me?”

“The pancakes serve two purposes.” He replied not giving the question much thought. “If you failed, they’d be, “better luck next time/feel better” pancakes.” His exclamation has her side-eyeing him.

“You do seem to know a lot about Marlene’s plan.” She said slyly.

“Are we still on this?”

“Alright, alright.” She backed off, supposing the pancakes creator would remain unclaimed. “But if this wasn’t a gift from you, I expect a reward.” Eyeing him with a smug smile. 

“A reward?”, he asked.

“Yes!”, she answered, getting herself really worked up. “I worked really hard!” Shaking on her stool accentuating each word.

“Okay, okay. And you want—” He stopped, a resigned expression crossed his face. There’d only be one thing on her mind. Finally, he’d be able to use it. “How ‘bout a date?”, he said, hiding his excitement. His words filled her with joy.

"You read my mind, big guy!” She smiled at him.

“Oh good, lemme get it.” His choice of words confused Fia for a moment as he hopped off the stool over the bar. 

“‘Lemme get it’?” She repeated his words curiously. Reaching in the fridge, he pulled out a wrinkly, deep red colored fruit and tossed it at Fia. She caught it and gave it a quick look before shooting him an unamused stare.

“A date.”, her words heavy with discontent. Zack meets her face with a very goofy, knowing smile. Taking a bite from it, her eyes widened in shock. “It’s good!”. 

She swallowed, snapping her fingers one time. “But let’s get serious!”

“We’ve done damn near everything since we started this—” his hands waved around, searching for the perfect word in thin air. “—whatever this is.”

“I’ve got an idea.” She said with a tone Zack knew as a warning that she was up to no good. 

“Oh no.” He muttered, but he knew he had to press on. “Hit me.”

“Let’s go topside!”

Chapter Text

Fia took the lead. It was another warm one, the cool breeze did a lot of heavy lifting to keep the temperature down. Zack mentally groaned when they got to the first leg of their journey. The outskirts into old Midgar. It’d been a month since they last traversed the abandoned slums of Sector 3. Since then, Zack had gotten used to Fia. She was a disaster of passion. Best to just go with the flow, or risk getting blown up or drowned or whatever. And it’d been fun, but that was before Fia suggested sneaking into a dangerous abandoned metropolis and going straight to potentially the most dangerous spot. She could get hurt, which meant he was on duty. Adding a danger aspect to their “dates” had become a near constant. In appearance more so than in quality, however. From going down random alleys to jumping off a swing set. She called it, “spice”. 

They entered the Sector 3 slums for the second time, their goal a long but straight shot to the central spire. Moving along through the overgrown slums, an adventurous fervor driving them forward. Remnants of the past were etched into the walls that surrounded them, despite the green overcoat. The two wondered to each other how they might’ve lived in a place like this. Getting by on scraps, surviving, dreaming. It took them a couple hours to reach the center pillar and by then it was afternoon. They looked up to the monolith before them: the upper plate, thousands of meters in the air, ever persevering despite the absence of people. They arrived at what looked to be an old train station, they took a rest on one of the decrepit benches.

“Now all we gotta do is wait for the train.” He joked, tapping his foot and checking his wrist for a watch he didn’t have.

“We’ll just have to walk up the track.” She replied confidently, hopping up with her hands on her hips. 

“Walk up the track?!” He couldn’t believe she just said that, brows furrowed in confusion. “Just like that, huh?”

“We’ve already come this far, right?”

“I thought this would have been an ‘I walked with my eyes and not my feet’ type of quest and we would turn back. 

“I’m walking with both.” She looked down at him with all the delusional confidence of an under qualified, arrogant ship captain in a rocky thunderstorm. “Unless you know a shortcut.” Her eyes shifted to wild mischief. “Maybe you could make the shortcut.” She pressed forward on him. The obvious prod made him want to refuse out of reflex, but he was curious himself. Precious few had been up top in the last 15 years. He’d always wanted to see it for himself, but didn’t know how to ask. The battleground of Avalanche and Shinra. It’s enough to get anyone who knew the history riled up. He stood up from the bench, his eyes on Fia. Then on the tower. Then back on Fia. He sighed. 

“I can either run us up the tower through the train tunnel…”, he pointed down the tunnel, then moved his finger skyward tracing the Sector 3 pillar. “…or we can go up the support pillar, and find a way up top.”, then pointed his finger westward, “or~, we could get to Sector 6 and climb up the side from Sector 7.

“One’s obviously more dangerous than the others.” 

“Yep.” 

A few seconds passed. 

Then a few more.

“We going up the side?”

“We are going up the side~!” Fia sang in echo with Zack. “Is that even a question?” She jumped into his arms without warning. He was ready though, catching her princess style; she’d done this many times before. His firm and yet tender grip made her heart skip a beat. She felt lighter. Zack started to turn, intent on running them back to the outer edge of Sector 3. A thought occurred to him though, a devilish grin streaked across his face. 

“What’s that look for?” Fia eyed him with suspicion before being pushed into him; he sprinted forth at incredible speeds. Leaping forward at an angle, maybe 60 feet high, skirting the side of the pillar. They slid across the hull, Zack gripping the exterior to extend their purchase and follow the curve of the pillar. The effort lands them right on one of the walls that surrounded the Wall Market ruins.

“You okay?” He asked, looking down at her. Her frazzled face broke out into bubbly giggling joy.

“Of course I am.” She scoffed. “I’m with you, aren’t I?”  

“Pfft.” Zack looked away, he’d been keeping his score and was losing; bad. They walked the top of the wall towards the Sector 7 facing edge. Rather, Zack walked and Fia rode. The sun was waning westward now, it’d be setting in a couple hours. Fia looked inward into the Sector. The inside of Wall Market had become overgrown like the other slum sectors but the mix matched architecture still stood out. Especially a certain Wutaian style castle that stuck out like a sore thumb.

“How’d you think of this, big guy?”

“What? The Sector 7 thing?”

“Yeah.” Fia queried, giving Zack pause.

“When Shinra dropped the 7 plate, Avalanche used the Sector 6 wall to climb the debris to the top.” 

Her stomach dropped when he mentioned the 7 plate falling. A thought kept creeping back into her mind that she hesitated talking about. She was Shinra. Not the same Shinra that ruled the world, but she came from Shinra. And Zack—Zack came from Avalanche. There’s a lot of documentation she’d gotten into and Rufus was open to divulging the “sins” as he called it, of their family, but she needed more. She wanted to know more.

“So~” She droned after a time, baiting him into an engagement.

“So?” He took the bait. She looked up through her eyebrows.

“Are you ever going to tell me about your parents?”

“What about ‘em?” His plainness made her face scrunch in confusion. She faced forward; they were about halfway around the wall.

“I know they saved Edge a long time ago, then the world from Deepground a few years after, but I feel like there’s…” A head turn and her eyes were on him. “…more there.” He met her gaze. “I mean, what? Avalanche just… fought with Shinra a bit, then saved the world twice after the Weapons showed up and a meteor nearly took us out? Something doesn’t add up.” She treaded lightly to avoid showing her hand. The sanitized look she’d had through old Shinra documents gave her an idea of the scale of Avalanche’s involvement. But they were dry and hard to parse, redacted to all hell, and worst of all, Shinra biased.

“It’s not like it’s a secret conspiracy or somethin’.” He admitted, rubbing the back of his head. “Just not really believable. And really long”

“Well, tell me anyways.” She leaned her head into his chest. “I’m curious.”

“Ok, but…” He stopped.

“But?” 

“I’m gonna need my hands.” He gestured off the ruins of Sector 7 with Fia following his lead. “I’ve got a route and I’d prefer four limbs to two.” He explained. She faced him with a pout.

“You mean I can’t look at your pretty face anymore?” She said, malicious intent weakly hidden behind coy innocence.

“No, but you can nuzzle it.” Said plainly.

Hot. Her cheeks burned red, his off hand remark caught her bad. Just what Zack wanted. Fia covered her blushing face as Zack turned away and kneeled to let her piggyback. Once she’s on, she leaned in close, her beat red face nuzzled up to his pale pallor; holding on tight. Smooth and soft. Zack kneeled into a runners stance before launching forth. All it took was minor hop and they’re airborne, a smooth arc through the air. Fia fought to keep her eyes open against the unabating winds. He landed, foot to metal for a split second, shifting upward, and bounding straight up. Hit right, hit left, and an attempted jump up. It slipped, the force of which left a great collapse below them. They were headed straight back down. Fia held back a scream with all her might. Zack thought fast, thinning out to catch a bit of falling debris. Once his feet made purchase, he bounced up from there; hopping from higher and higher air riding platforms. Fia looked down against her best judgment to see them hundreds of feet in the air having left the slums far behind. They were headed to Sector 8, no turning back now. He ended the frantic hops in a dead hang, supported by hanging cables. He pulled them up, facing a dilapidated tunnel around 100 feet long, seemingly broken off from its original position in the collapse. Down the tunnel was a skylight, the most likely way forward. Zack moved forward slowly, minding his step. A loud, metallic creak reverberated through the tunnel, the shaking causing Zack to pause. Another shockwave came. But this time, it didn’t stop. It shook and gave, falling abruptly a half a foot. Fia failed to kill the scream this time. Zack sprinted down the tunnel as it shook and jolted. As soon as they reached the skylight, the tunnel was loosed from its unsteady resting place. It entered a spinning free fall. Luckily, Zack had jumped clear of the tunnel, landing on the scaffolding beneath the upper plate.

Fia had her eyes squeezed shut, even when they landed. Only interrupted by Zack’s fit of hysterical laughter. She opened her eyes wide, needing to see it to believe it. He was laughing alright, the stress of the run had gotten to him, hitting him with an uncontrollable fit. Fia could only look on in astonishment at the first time she’d ever seen him laugh so freely. His laughter was contagious, the nervous pit in her stomach quivered in the uproar she set free. They laughed until their stomachs ached and kept laughing well after, only stopping when Zack abruptly fell forward. Fia sprawled out over top of him, pressing herself up.

“Oh my god, are you okay?!”, she shouted a worried cry. 

A muffled, “Yeah.” was his reply, filling her with relief. She got off of him, once he picked himself up they looked around. Around them was a technical wonder. Giant machines held fast to the ceiling that dipped below them with giant bulbs at the bottom. The sun lamps; old Shinra tech. Those living under the plates were starved of the midday sun — they grew depressed and malnourished. Shinra’s brilliant idea: giant mako sucking sunlamps to simulate daylight. What a novel idea!

“Didn’t mean to break anything.” Zack said, looking back at the avalanche of concrete and iron. “I could try and find us another way up there.”

“I~” She held the note, drawing attention to herself. “…can’t… do anymore crazy jumps.” Zack looked over to her, finding her knees knocking. He froze… and busted out laughing. Heartily. Fia was not amused, going in on his shoulder. “It’s! Not! Funny!” A light slap punctuated each word. 

“Okay, okay!” He said, shielding himself from further retaliation. “Damn! But the sun’s going down, if we don’t find another way up, we won’t be back til way after dark.”

“Last time I checked, dates were supposed to be a little dangerous.”

“Accordin’ to who?” He snapped.

“Accordin’ to me!” She snapped back.

Zack shook his head in disbelief. Such flawless logic. 

“Why couldn’t you just fly us up if you’re so worried?” She asked, now remembering their first encounter.

“That’s more of a hover than actual flight.” He admitted. “Believe me, I tried. It only slows my descent.” Zack scanned the horizon line for any potential avenues they could use to continue on. “I think we gotta go through that.” He pointed to what looked to be a freight lift down a zigzag maze of platforms, scaffolding, and stairways. “Let's go.”, he said, holding out his hand for her to take. She took it, but stomped her foot.

“Now I can't nuzzle or look at your face!” Her sudden aggression and pouting made him exhale sharply from his nose.

“You’ll live.” He snarked at her, only for her retort to be racing in front of him, taking his hand. 

“I’ll take the lead as compensation!” And with that, she said before she pulled Zack damn near off his feet like a golden retriever on a leash. She turned back once they got past the first bend, a sign displayed prominently ‘H-06’. The scaffolding was separated into sections, each section a chunk with large metal shelves and old forgotten crates. “And don't think I forgot about your story.” 

“Ok...” Zack mulled over his words briefly before speaking. “My parents grew up in Nibelheim.”

“Nibelheim?!”

“Yep.” He said, as they headed down a set of stairs,  “Sight of the first reactor.” It was standard curriculum but a footnote in the rise and fall of Shinra. From the outside looking in, it was an isolated incident, another straw on the camel’s back.

Zack continued. “It’d gone up before they were born. They were childhood friends, I think.” They rounded the corner into another section, the sign displayed, ‘H-05’.“You think?” The next section was separated by a sizable gap; it seemed like a mobile track was used to connect different sections. Without a word, Zack took Fia in his arms and jumped them clear across the gap. 

“Mom and Dad tell it differently.” He let her down and they continued on. “Mom tells things like she was only friends with Dad. Dad says Mom had a legion of guys around her. But they both agree they knew each other.” 

“I don’t really get it.” 

“Neither do I. But Dad wanted to protect her, wanted to be her hero or somethin’…” 

“Aw~!” They reached a bridge that hadn’t been lowered above another gap. Zack kneeled down for Fia to get on. He monkey-barred the two across the bridge. 

“...so he went to join SOLDIER.” A final swing at the end of the bridge and they’re at the penultimate section. The sign above read, ‘H-03’. There were husks and giant cobwebs lining the walls around them. It unnerved them. Giant spiders? They’d heard of the Fiends made from corrupted Mako, but here? So close to people? They seemed empty so the two tried to ignore them. 

“Your dad was in SOLDIER?” She spoke in spite of her anxiety.  “That explains the eyes.” 

“Nope.”

“Nope?” She asked, taken aback. 

“He tried to join up, but never made the cut. So he was relegated to basic Shinra infantry.” The two found themselves at another gap with no crossing. They jumped it, same as before, finally reaching the section with the dilapidated elevator.

“So a basic Shinra grunt, a martial artist, a shinra director and a rag tag band of revolutionaries get strong enough to fight a god like Bahamut?” She questioned. “And take on Deepground terrorists?” 

“It’s obviously not the full picture.”

“Then what am I missing here?”

“Jenova.”, was all he said. They reached what looked to be a control panel, long covered in dust and devoid of power. Even worse, the lift was a horizontal mover and over on the other side. They’d need to get the lift down there and then get it back up if they wanted to get topside this way.

“And~ we are stuck.” He huffed. “Again.”

“No getting over there without power?” Fia wondered to herself before looking about the console; a clear controller for the lift. She felt around the console, finding an open panel underneath the monitor with wires hidden inside. 

“What’re you lookin’ for? Manual control or—” He got cut off by the machine whirred to life for the first time in nearly two decades. 

“AUX~ILIARY POWER SUPPLY C-C-CONFIRMED, RE~ACTIVATING CARGO PLAT-T-T-T-TFORM.” 

The machine sputtered and sparked out an old recorded message. Inside the wiring of the console, Fia fed it a direct, steady stream of electricity. She’d learned to do this trick playing with a lamp. Nothing glamorous like shooting lightning from her fingertips and it made her a little embarrassed. Zack’s eyes went wide. 

“You—” He stuttered, his reaction made Fia pause. Like she’d done something wrong. She pulled her head out from under the console to look up at him.

“Yeah?” His sudden shock made her worry. 

“You got materia?! That’s awesome!” His compliment lit a stick of dynamite inside her. She wanted to soak in it as much as possible.

“Oh, that’s awesome?” She said with a confident smirk. “Well I’m not using materia!”

“Of course not!” He returned her energy with a grin of his own, flippant all the way. “Aerith returned from the grave, the last living Cetra.” Fia furrowed her brow at this.

“Aerith?” Fia asked.

“Yeah, remember our first… date? I took you to that remembrance? She died…after an encounter with Jenova. She gave her life to stop her."

“And she was the last—”

Her words were cut off by a skittering coming from behind them. No, not quite. It was all around them. Above, below, near and far. These giant spider snake hybrids: Grashtrikes peeked out from every spare corner or came down from the ceiling in droves. First 2, then 6, then 12, and their numbers kept doubling. Must’ve been the noise that woke them. Zack postures in front of Fia.

“Can you get the lift over here?” He asked, a soldier’s resolve in his voice, catching Fia off guard.

“Y-yeah.” She answered.

“I’ll take care of this.” 

“Shouldn’t we run?”

“If they’re fiends—” He said, there was a tinge of excitement in his voice. It was deeper than it had been before, like he’d been given free reign to let loose. He punched a fist into his hand. “—then I don’t need to hold back.” His arms circled a moon and he assumed a fighting posture: the battle stance of Zangankuen. He’s a blur, his hair flowing like quicksilver as he dashed between the bugs, delivering deadly blows. The Grashtrike swarm was unprepared, any one strike from Zack was enough to crack through the fiend’s exoskeleton. In vain, they attempted to overwhelm him with numbers. He was a whirlwind, of chitin, limbs and soft tissue. Fia could only watch the display, mesmerized. Sure he was strong, she knew that, but it’d never truly registered to her how capable he was at killing. It should’ve terrified her. And yet, it transfixed her. Which left an opening, she didn’t notice the Queen Grashtrike lowering slowly creeping from underneath, seeing her as easy prey. Creeping closer and closer, its stinger primed and ready to turn Fia into empty flesh. It’s within meters, none the wiser. Fia’s concentration on the fight was broken for an instant, only then was she aware. And then did it strike, a swift lunge at its prey, a truer strike was never seen. But it didn’t land. Zack had eyed the thing at the last second, knowing he wouldn’t make it in time, he felt something within him snap. From deep within his being Zack summoned an ethereal black sword, it pierced the foe from 6 meters away. A buffeting aura enveloped Zack, staggering the remaining bugs around him. He raised the sword, lifting the bug high into the sky and whirled, the black blade slicing a wide arc around him — cutting the very air itself in twain. He stood tall amongst the desiccated corpses and in that moment, Fia could only look on in awe. It was understandable, in that moment, what might be terrifying about him. A loud clattering snapped her back to reality. The lift had arrived. Zack rushed to Fia, cupping her chin in his hand. 

“You’re not hurt are you?” Zack said, the worrywort was back. Fia rolled her eyes, standing free from Zack’s grasp. She looked down to him as he still knelt, a veritable knight in every way.

“Of course I’m fine. Who am I with again?”

“Yeah, yeah.” He said, dismissively as he finally stood. He went to board the lift but Fia jumped in front of him, blocking him.

“Nope, I wanna hear you say it.” She commanded, hands on her hips. 

“Say what?”

“That you’re my guardian angel!”

“I’ve only got a limited bandwidth. I can either finish the story about my parents, or I can say that. Your choice.”

His ultimatum left Fia in a conundrum. She really wanted him to say it. She really wanted him to say a lot of things, but this was baby steps. They could get to it anytime, right?

“10…9…8…” He was counting down, applying pressure to her. She cracked.

“OKAY, okay! Mom and dad! Go!” She relented, moving to the side to let Zack on board. Zack looked down at her with a smug look on his face. Fia tried to return one in kind, but she was no match. After that fight, he was on one. Fia worked her magic to get the lift moving to the other side. She turned to look at him, a coy smile across her face. 

“So~.” Droning as she’d done before, loud enough to be audible over the noise of the lift.

“Where’d I leave off?” He rubbed his chin, trying to think.

“Jenova?”

“Yeah. It all started with Jenova.” He began. “Shinra had her dug up about 45 years ago. They did experiments on her, taking samples of her DNA believing she was some Cetra queen.” Fia pulled her lips in at the description. If Zack noticed, he didn’t show it. “Turns out, not only was she not  Cetra, she wasn’t dead. She was an alien life form stuck in a state of suspended animation. And her cells had this genetic protocol they found: Reunion, which allowed her control over anyone who had her cells.”

“Reunion of the lost parts.” She added.

“Exactly. She was held in an underground facility in Nibelheim. And Sephiroth was the first SOLDIER to be implanted with her cells who just so happened to be stationed in Nibelheim.” 

“The one and only.” She chimed in. They reached the other side with minimal fuss. From there, it was a straight shot to a ladder on the far side. They began the final leg of their climb, Zack scanned his surroundings, not wanting to get caught off guard again. A grab of the hand snapped him out of it. He continued.

“My dad, Zack—original Zack, and Sephiroth went to Nibelheim on a mission twenty four years ago. Shinra had her in storage underneath the reactor. 

When Sephiroth showed up, she… awakened. Mom and dad don’t like to talk about it.” He said as they reached the ladder up. “But from what I can gather, whatever happened got Sephiroth killed, and their village got burnt to the ground.”

“Hmmm.” A soft sad hum was all Fia could muster as she climbed up. Fia didn’t have a witty retort to this information. She knew it was wrong. Jenova awakening? No, she knew the truth. She’d  seen the classified documents, however redacted they might be. And she definitely knew why his story was diverging. Zack jumped up after she got to the top. 

“Now we just gotta find a way out from here.” He proclaimed, now finding themselves in a janitorial backway. They came across a locked door barring their path.

“Stand back.” Zack warned, as he prepped himself to rip the door of its hinges. He never got the chance, a fireball blasted the door smoove off. Clocking his head to see the smoking gun, Fia, with her smoking hand posed as a toy gun. She even blew the smoke from her fingertip.

“Can’t let you have all the fun, big guy.”

“That was pretty sick, I’m not gonna lie.” Another stick of dynamite. “Lemme see your materia!” He begged. The first time he’d sounded so wanting. She found it intoxicating.

“Hmm~~. Nope! Can’t sorry.”

“Come on~.” He whined.

“Finish your story and maybe~ I’ll let you see.” She teased.

Continuing down the hallway, the two kept alert. The short corridors made an ambush a whole lot worse than out in the open. As they continued on Zack continued on. 

“After the incident, Jenova entered the lifestream through the reactor. With Nibelheim gone, Shinra thought it right to pick through the scraps for anything useful.”

“Like research?” Fia asked.

“Like…people.”

“…Oh” Fia deflated, but played it off as empathy and not guilt. Somehow that got left out of the “sins” lecture. Zack went on.

“Shinra’s mad scientist Hojo captured Dad and OG Zack, and kept them as experiments. The guy thought he could make clones of Sephiroth to replace what they lost probably… but it didn’t work. That’s why he’s got the hallmarks of a SOLDIER.” Zack halted their march, eyeing a manhole cover above them. He looked back at Fia, who managed a fake smile before shooting another fireball at the manhole cover, blowing it smoove off. Zack let out an astonished laugh before bowing to Fia: a ‘ladies first gesture’. Her gloom was starting to eat away at her, her mask almost broke before she could get up the ladder. Zack carried on once he started climbing. 

“They spent five years in these tubes — nearly killed dad. Zack mounted an escape but my dad was catatonic, couldn’t move. He carried dad with him to Midgar but Shinra tracked them down before they could reach the city limits and killed him.” His retelling was so nonchalant. And how could it not be, it didn’t happen to him. But each new nugget of information was a mental gut punch. That last detail in particular was like getting stabbed. She knew her father’s company had done a lot of shit, he’d told her as much. But to have someone tell her to her face what Shinra had done, had her stomach in knots. At that moment, she realized she was lying. Not directly, but she wasn’t exactly being up front with her family details. They made it. They were topside. But Fia couldn’t even process their accomplishment. Her disgust and self loathing became too much to bear.

“Shinra.” The word spat from her mouth like venom. “The more you learn about them, the worse they get.” A deep gloom wreathed her face as she leaned away from him. A look of sorrow. A look of pain.  Zack took notice of this, regarding her with concern. 

“What—”

“I’m fine.” Heading off his question with a bold faced lie. She wanted to smile, her age old defense. So none dug too deep. Not her father, her bodyguards, not anyone. But her smile failed her, her mouth quivered but couldn’t hold shape. Only bitter shrill words availed her fleeting guard. And Zack was having none of it. 

“Hey.” Reaching out his hand and grasping hers. The impact sent a shock through her as she turned to meet his gaze.

“What’s wrong? Seriously.” The tenderness of his hand, the compassion and worry in his voice and eyes; it caught her completely off guard. She stumbled over a half explanation. Heart beating fast, she swallowed hard. Her mind was racing, between her ties with Shinra, her friendship with Zack, how comfortable it was to pretend. She exhaled, the weight of her deceit pulling down on her. Some of that weight had to come off. 

“It’s…it’s just…it hurts. It hurts to even hear that.” Her face was red, and looked ready to cry. All this way and she still couldn’t be fully honest with him. Or herself. “I’m so sorry, your dad—no, mom and your dad, and your—”, the dam burst, she tried in vain to wipe the evidence away. “—namesake had to go through that.” 

Zack was at a loss for words and was desperately trying to find some. One. Any one that would help her, comfort her, something. This wasn’t just a new face for him, it was a new experience all together. He didn’t know how to comfort, not really. The only guidance he could think of were films and he wasn’t stupid enough to quote a movie to make her feel better. So he put his fear aside, pulled her in close and hugged her. A deep hug. He’d always kept his hands to himself, only keeping her at bay when he needed to. He minded his space, never taking it. She was the leader, she pressed the contact. Why? Fia couldn’t even hazard the thought in the moment. Her whole body was like a teapot fit to boil. In that moment, she realized how much she needed this. The contact, the warmth, the feeling that someone cared for her. She hugged him back, a tight embrace, an effort to return the love. They stood there, the sun now kissing the horizon, absorbed each other’s warmth. 

“I’m sorry. I don’t really know what to say.” Zack admitted.

“What are you apologizing for?” Fia giggled, finally able to crack a smile.

“I just said why.”

“Why would you apologize for not knowing what to say?”

“Because… I don’t know.” 

“Dork.”, she teased, smiling brightly up at him.

“Hey hey—” But his complaints were silenced when she nuzzled his chest again. He comforted her again. Knowing why was secondary. It was the best he could do. It was all he could do. Fia looked up at Zack again, she saw the stars behind him. Stars are a rarity in the city, precious few are bright enough to be seen amidst the light pollution. But here, elevated on this darkened monument of sin, the starlight of the galaxy showed its true majesty.

Zack followed her gaze, in awe as well at the sight. He looked back at Fia to find two more stars, the stars in Fia’s eyes. 

Her focus shifted to his eyes in turn. Her breath hitched as he leaned in, eyes widening. Anxiety shot through her like a bullet, drilling a cavern in her stomach and filling her mind with racing thoughts. The here, the now, the smell, the warmth in her body, the feel of his touch. She closed her eyes, awaiting the coming fireworks. Contact was nigh and feelings were high but alas, it seemed not to be. Fia’s phone rang with perfect timing as always. “You know who” was calling, finally mustering up the courage to pretend to be her father. Glowering down at the thing, she thought of just ignoring it out of spite, or sending it straight to voice mail or even blocking him straight up. Those choices were stricken from her in an instant when Zack snatched her phone from her. 

“Fuck. Off.”

He switched the phone off and kissed her. 

Chapter Text

It was fireworks. So sudden, so forward, so out of character for Zack, Fia nearly fainted. But she mustered the strength to not fall over and yielded her lips to his. They fumbled in their play, unsure of what they should do with their hands or how far to lean and rise, but found an uneasy rhythm with one another. Zack pulled against his chains, those mental bindings that held him back. But they loosened, his desire to connect and be connected with Fia outweighing his fears, if only for a moment. To be vulnerable. To desire and act selfishly. They broke for air, their eyes locked on one another; the high of the moment washing over them. Their breathing didn’t slow at all, even after what felt like forever.

“Took you long enough, big guy.” Fia smiled softly. Zack said nothing, he was speechless, the height of the moment still lingering in him. “And you’re a bad kisser.” she teased, twirling her hair.

“I just need… practice.” he whispered, leaning down for another go.

“Okay.” Fia lifted up on her toes to meet his lips. The rhythm this time was much better. Her arms, on his neck, his arms support her head and back, holding her close. Zack pulled again on his chains, they flexed further than before. It was almost a study, he felt her true. Her lips, vibrant, sweet, and hungry. He gave more and more to her. And she gave more and more to him, a leg lift signaled her bliss. They broke for air again.

“Better?” he asked.

“It’s a start.” Fia teased. Zack gave a little snort. She looked around, the dark city all around them. Itbmd be a waste to not walk around. But it might also be a waste to not stay in this moment.  “We should actually explore, maybe.” Her eyes fall back on him. “Or we could just keep making out.”

“We’re exploring.” He answered, the bass in his voice gave her goosebumps, despite the innocence in his delivery. He held out his hand and she took it. They walked through Sector 8’s topside in much the same way they went through the Sector 3 slums. Imagining the people that lived here, what they did for work, what they ate, how they loved. If they could see the same sky at night that they did now. Probably not. They needed a flashlight to see, in its hay day it must have been bright like Edge.

One difference between Edge and Midgar were the cars or what was left of them. Up here, the ones that weren’t picked clean were sharper, chunkier and bolder than the newer models. A lot must’ve changed in nearly two decades. They passed by one in decent condition every now and again, and Fia found it absolutely necessary to look into each of them. Despite initiating, Fia ended up in the lead again, taking wide steps as she walked. He didn’t mind, that’s just how she was. And he liked that about her. So adventurous. So free, without a care of how she was perceived. Their path through the city carved a snake way around its many bends and curves. Around one of these bends they found a dime. A muscle car, rough and tumble. Bright cyan, a sleek but striking frame with vents in the hood for secondary exhaust. Whoever owned this thing spared no expense. The kind of car rich eccentric collectors drool over, and it was just sitting there. Fia gasped and pointed to the car, facing Zack to make sure he saw it too, her mouth agape.

“Yeah?” Zack affirmed he saw it, just not the point.

“That car is so cool!” she gawked.

“It is, but you’ve said that about damn near every car so far.”

“But this one is actually cool, not just scarcity imposed cool!” She darted over to the car with Zack trotting along behind her. A swipe of her arm to clear the dust and her eyes are glued to the window. 

“Tinted windows.” she groaned, pouting, she turned to Zack. 

“Why’re you lookin’ at me?! You want me to rip the door off?” 

“No!” she scolded. “It’s a classic. Just help me jimmy the lock.”

“Jimmy?!” Zack sputtered, flabbergasted by the insane word choice. “You didn’t even try the door.”

“Oh yeah” she mocked, “the valuable vintage muscle car left behind after the migration just happens to—GASP” Her mockery was snuffed out with a gasp when Zack quite simply pulled on the handle and opened the door right in her face. Ecstatic, she hopped inside, the smell of dust and old leather filled her nostrils, but she didn’t care. The passenger seat became her home, rummaging the nicks and corners, like a kid jumped up on sugar. Zack got into the driver side, his nose turned up as he got in. 

“Stinks in here.” he said to no one listening, eyeing a Fia too busy raiding the backseat. She returned with an old fashioned polaroid camera. Blowing on the camera and wiping off the cobwebs, she took the thing apart in quick but measured order.

“Wonder if it still works.” she lilted, fiddling around with it. “Can you imagine getting shots on this? Can’t believe nobody yoinked this car, must’ve been—” the Zack eyeing her with confusion forced her pause. “What?”

“You already got a phone!” 

“And?!” another flawless retort from Fia before she went back to tinkering. Zack shook his head.

“You really like old tech, huh?”

“I hate it.” she hit him with her signature side eye. “Can’t you tell?” 

Zack just chuckled. Not too long though, Fia bounded from her seat and climbed on top of him. He’d done so well in fooling himself, even fooling her. Pretending to be this casanova with slick lines and gusto felt good. That all shattered when she got on top of him. It was his turn to feel the heat, his pale face looked more like a tomato. And the worst part, she didn’t even mean to do it to him. She was focused on getting a good shot with her new old camera. A cute pose and a flash and she’s waving the polaroid. 

“This is a great find.” she smiled, “We can take photos of the landmarks and—” It finally dawned on her the position they were in upon seeing Zack’s awestruck face. Her face reddened like an old thermometer and she zipped into the passenger seat, as embarrassed as Zack was. They stole glances at each other, unable to dissipate the tension in the air. That is until Zack got a call on his phone. It was his mom, Tifa. He fumbled with the button trying to answer it. 

“MOM!”

“Zack?” Tifa called over the phone. She stood in backroom of the Seventh Heaven with Cloud right across from her. He didn’t want to wait, but Tifa got worried. “Hey, it’s getting late. Are you okay?”

“Uh…y-yeah.” he stammered. There was a pause over the line.

“Are you… still with Fia?”

“I-uh-uh…yeah.” 

“Hi… Mrs. Strife.” Fia called from the passenger seat. 

“Oh!” Tifa blurted out having taken all the steps necessary to get the wrong idea. “Well, don’t mind me! You’re both at that age—of course! We’ll see you when you get back. Whether that be tonight… or tomorrow—”

“USE PROTECTION!” Cloud called over as he left to deal with some drunken ingrate. 

“CLOUD! I'll leave you to it, honey! Love you!” and with a click, the call died. Zack slowly put the phone back in his pocket. Fia sat forward, a discerning look on her face as she eyed Zack. 

“So~” she lingered. “Why is it okay for you to take a call from your folks, and not me?” Cocking her head to one side. “That doesn’t seem very fair.”

“They’ve got better timing.” he said, counting the reasons on his fingers.  “And~ they don’t sour my face and mood when they call.”

“I guess you got a point.” Fia relented. “But I think… your mom really wants—”

“Stop! Please, stop! Please.” He slunked deep in his seat. “I don’t wanna think about what my mom wants out of this.” 

“Well, what do you wanna think about?” she said, a provocative undertone so thickly veiled only Zack could perceive it readily. He shuddered a bit but held his resolve, pulling his seat back a notch or two and leaning it back.

“Practice.” was all he said — all he needed to say. Fia climbed back over him and kissed him deep. The overflow of emotions going on inside them had hit a fever pitch. The confines of the car, it was private, cozy. Like the only thing in the world were the two of them and the passion they shared. Fia in the driver’s seat was a greedy kisser, both hands pressing down on his chest, she set the pace. After lapping him up like an ice cream cone, she broke from their passion, looking into his eyes with something else on her lips. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“You never finished.” she reminded him. Zack scratched his head.

“I thought—”

“I can take it.” she said firmly, yet softly. “I’m a big girl!”

“Okay…” he traced back to his last point in his mind. “Dad joined Avalanche when he got to Midgar.  They went back and forth with Shinra until Jenova killed the old president. This sent them on the run from Shinra while also chasing Jenova. And then they found her on a cruise ship? And then in an ancient temple?” he stalled, trying to keep the story together. 

“This story’s all over the place.” Fia giggled.

“It’s better told in more than one sitting. By the people who actually lived it.” he shrugged. “I did say it was a long story.” 

“Keep it going then.” she ordered.

“Well, Meteorfall was all her. Avalanche chased her north, following my dad’s lead, but she was stringing him along with her cells in his body. There’s this black materia, it summons Meteor. Jenova wanted to use it to put the planet into shock, then take over the lifestream from inside. Remake everything in her image.”

“But Avalanche managed to stop her.” Fia ventured.

“Barely.” 

“You know what?” she remarked. “That was really hard to believe.”

“Told ya’.”

“No, no, it's all in the way you tell it.” she pointed. “You have no sense for storytelling. Just bullet points without any flavor.”

“I’m not trying to be entertain—” he paused, his face darting like a dog.

“What?” Fia asked, worried.

“There’s a car.”

“A car? Like the ones across—” She started as a joke, but he was serious.

“No, on! And moving.” 

Fia’s eyes snapped to the windshield covered in dust. Wiping the inside only left a blurry image of the road in front, but it was enough. A black car. That same damn car. They’d followed her? Her phone, of course! She opened the back, snatchin’ the battery out and pocketing both. 

“Who the hell is that?”

“My damn folks, that’s who!” Fia didn’t hesitate, ripping the underside of the ignition chamber off and started jacking the car. 

“So much for it being a classic—”
 
“We gotta get away from them!” she interrupted.

“You just said they’re your folks, right? Why wou—” 

“I don’t—” she winced. “I don’t want to go back yet!” Her eyes were full of anxiety yet she forced a smile.  “Please!”. Zack had no choice but to fold. “If you can get this thing going…” he started but she was already starting the car. Mako engine, reliable if nothing else even after all these years. It roared to life, Zack put it in reverse and they backed out like a bat out of hell. Zack rolled the window down, the dust on the back windshield making it impossible to see behind them. Fia engaged the wipers to get some visibility in the front. She set her eyes on the black car: the aggression of the driver, couldn’t’ve been Reno or Rude. Had to be Tseng.

“Dickhead.” she thought out loud and then got pressed against the driver side window as Zack made a sharp turn. The black car careened past them. Zack threw it in gear and bolted down an alleyway behind them before could react. They busted through the alleyway before their assailant was able to get back on track. A sharp right turn and Zack floored it down the street. Mom’s driving lessons were really paying off, but there was one problem. They had bothered to check the fuel gauge when they started the car. Their ride started sputtering and slowed.

“Shit!” Zack shouted, trying in vain to keep the car rolling, their pursuer turned down the alleyway not far enough behind them. Fia grabbed hold of the ignition wiring and pumped her power into it, resuscitating the engine. 

“Keep going!” she yelled.

“Fia!” 

“Yeah?!” 

“Listen, it’s really…” he stalled. “—hot that you’re on top of me but—”

“If I'm not up here the car will turn off!”

“Okay, then go lower!”

“Go—what?!”

“I can’t—” he jerked the car to the side, missing a felled light post in the middle of the street. “I CANT SEE!” he shouted. Without a word, she maneuvered herself as low as she could without interfering with Zack’s feet. 

“That's all I got!”

“That’s all I need.” with a full field of view, Zack had free reign to push it to the redline. They outpaced the black car easily. Despite its age, this was a monster car, ripping past 100 kilometers an hour in only a few seconds down a straight way. Zack tried to give them the slip, turning down random turns, eating away at much of his progress. And yet the car persisted in its chase, as if it knew where they were headed. He eyed the signs above them, the street names meant nothing to him, he was looking for one thing in particular. And he found it. Route ME-8, the Midgar expressway. Zack made another sharp turn and raced down the road. Once he got onto the highway, he’d leave that black car in the dust. They blasted through the intersection before the highway and in a flash he saw it. A second black car. It nearly t-boned them, screeching as it turned to chase them up the highway. 

“THERE’S TWO OF THEM?!” he hollered at the top of his lungs.

“Shit! Elena, too?!”

“These are your folks?! Why are they acting like serial killers?!” he demanded, trying his hardest to shake the fool behind him. 

“They—” she hesitated. “They aren’t trying to kill us, they’re trying to ‘protect’ me.” Her explanation froze Zack solid. He swallowed hard.

“From me?” he muttered. She looked up at him, horrified trying to find a way to contest him. The whipping of helicopter blades overhead broke her concentration. 

ATTENTION DRIVER, THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA. PULL OVER NOW.

Reno’s voice called over the copter’s megaphone. Fia had half a mind to lean out the window and tell him to stick it, but she relented. She looked at him, a mix of tearful joy on her face. 

“Look, if they think I’m—”

“NO!”, she shouted, her voice a fury but for a moment, then it quelled. A harsh light shone through the window of the car. “These people don’t know you. They don’t know how kind you are, how gentle you are, how thoughtful you are. And they don’t care. I don’t know why you think you’re this… monster. But I’m not afraid of you. I want to be here with you! Not them!” Something inside him was unlocked when she said that. His logic had always been that his strength was a curse, something to be feared. He was something to be feared. He kept waiting for her to get it. But she wasn’t scared. She was never scared. And he had to get that. It was time for him to get out of his own head. He took one hard look down the road ahead and he locked in. 

HEY! I TOLD YOU TO STOP! SON OF A BIT—!

The audio cut made Fia burst into laughter as they veered down the highway at blazing speed. They needed to outrun the copter and their pursuers, and they didn’t have much time left. He could hear Fia panting, she tried to hide it but feeding the car energy was taking its toll. There was a turn up ahead, then an off-ramp onto a lower route that passed under. Zack got the idea to lose the heat but there was a problem: if they slowed down they’d be caught up to in a flash. They needed to make the turn without losing so much speed. Zack remembered when his mom took a turn fast. The movements she did to keep them from veering off the road. 

“Hold on!” Zack warned as he sped into the turn, drifting the angle of the outside lane. We’re he to fail; they'd crash — not an option. They neared the off ramp, he lifted off the accelerator too catch some grip before flicking the car in the direction. 

Inertia Drift. 

Cutting a line millimeters from the curb, the car drifted the whole way down the off-ramp. Fia couldn’t hold down her shriek for the second time. The end of the ramp was coming up, if he didn’t straighten out, they’d be spinning out. But Zack had a plan. The border between the two sides of the highway opened up right before the overpass, just enough for them to slip through. A half a meter in either direction and they might wreck. He’d survived on beginner’s luck before, now was the true test. 

He let off the gas…

and reversed the drift.

Double Inertia Drift.

He slipped through the divider gap like a glove and boosted under the bridge.

“Turnitoffturnitoff!” he blurted. Her hands released the ignition cables and the car died, rolling silently under the overpass. The helicopter light checked the spot where they might’ve crashed had Zack messed up, then continued down the highway in the wrong direction. Zack couldn’t believe he’d pulled it off. He looked down at Fia, a smile on his face that cracked upon him seeing her face. She was pale, breathing heavy, about ready to keel over. Guilt hits him like a freight train; he’d run her ragged and could only think about how cool he’d been. Who was he becoming?

“No.” he shuddered, “Nonononononono. I didn’t mean to—”

“Best…getaway…ever…” she mustered a tired smile. Despite the smile, Zack felt horrible. Opening the car door, he maneuvered the two of them out of the car, helping her stand. Her knees wobbled and she would’ve collapsed if not for Zack holding her upright. 

“Hey, maybe we should just rest here.” 

“I’m fine, I’m… fine, just tired.” Fia gained her footing, she leaned on Zack for leverage and a little bit because she wanted to. “Just a little weak.” She took a deep breath, and stood up straight, the color slowly returning to her face. “Hey, where’d you learn to do that?” But he couldn’t answer. He noticed them too late, the black cars had surrounded them. The helicopter they thought they lost was circling back, hitting them with spot light. Fia was beside herself. How did they find them? The fog from her exhaustion impeded her reasoning. But then it hit her, they were tracking his phone too. Elena and Tseng exit their respective vehicles, flanking them. The longer hair almost made Elena seem dignified were it not for the bratty scowl on her face. Tseng was much the same, wisps of gray streaked his hair and newfound beard. Zack kept Fia behind him, hand outstretched to guard her. The helicopter stabilized with Rude jumping down from it landing in front, a triangle formation. Finally the chopper landed with the final Turk, Reno making his appearance, sidling into the triangle. They held their ground with such confidence, clearly they’d practiced this well. Yet when Zack looked at all of them he saw it. In their eyes, their breathing, their subtle movements, was fear. They were afraid of him, especially Elena. The fact washed numbly over him, as he’d practiced enduring the feeling to himself his whole life.

“Nice driving kid!” he snarked, shooting Zack a cold glare, a snarl across his face. “What do you think you’re doing here, huh?” Zack took his time to process his words before replying.

“Just a bit of bodyguard work.” he bolstered. The line got a short harsh laugh outta Reno.

“You know, the last guy who said something like that to me did a horrible job.” He narrowed his eyes, his voice grew low. “But you’d know all about that story, wouldn’t you?”

“…No.” Zack replied plainly. Reno blinked hard. his cold demeanor gave away to shock and outrage.

“No?! What d’ya mean no?! You don’t know who I am?!” 

“I have no clue.” Zack said simply. Fia started having a giggle fit behind him. 

“But you’ve heard of the Turks, right?” Reno started stumbling over his words in rage. 

“Yeah.” he agreed. Reno pointed to himself like a cornball.

“I’m Reno!” he fumed. 

“Reno?”, his tone took an indignant turn.  The Turks started looking more at him than at their targets. A mental bomb went off in Reno’s brain.

“Your dad never—”

“Am I really s’posed to know who you are?” he interrupted, completely done at this point.

“Oh my GOD,” he raged, “you are just like your arrogant ass dad! No fuckin’ respect at all!”

“I think you said enough, partner.” Rude interjected.

“Ain’t much to respect from where I’m standing.” Zack sneered. “Just an unc looking for some unearned clout/the clout he never had.”

“UNC?!!?!” Reno exploded.

“Enough, Reno.” Tseng interrupted the back and forth. Fia was full on laughing now, needing Zack to be her support beam so she didn’t collapse onto the pavement.

“Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, what the fuck, man!” Reno seethed, pointing his baton right at Zack. “This motherfucker’s getting on my goddamn nerves!”

“Knock it off!” Elena snapped. “We let you talk so you could negotiate, your supposed forte. Bad idea, I guess. It’s always me-me-me, we look like jokes right now.” 

“We’re here for the girl.” Rude started moving in. “We don’t want to fight, take it as a blessing we’re so lenient.” A threat plain as day. Zack wore his calm, cold demeanor like a shield. He wore that shield anytime he felt someone’s discomfort. Anytime he met someone new. A better alternative than being caught vulnerable. Better to pretend to be someone aloof, uncaring. But then it hit him: the Turks were here for her. They were her folks. His shield cracked.

“Wait…” he struggled to get the words out, turning to look at her, eyes wide. “The Turks are your—” Fia sang a quiet victory jingle.

“You figured it out.” she said, a sad trembling in her voice as she forced a smile, her eyes twinkling with barely held tears. “This whole time, you’ve been with a Shinra. Just like my father, and my grandfather who had a hand in what happened to your parents—” Tears fall, she faltered. She took a deep shaky breath, “I should’ve stopped pretending.” She moved past him.
 “So long, big guy.” Time slowed, so much to process. Fia was Shinra. Was she playing him from the start? Some type of charade? But if she was Shinra, really Shinra like the ones from his parents stories, why would she go so far? He needed answers, he sprung forth out and took Fia’s hand, stopping her in her tracks. The Turks drew their weapons on Zack. Elena’s breathing hastened, her eyes wide, as if she was reliving a nightmare. Reno and Rude looked hesitant to pounce on him, but Tseng kept himself calm. Fia turned back, wrapping her arms around him. The confusion, the rage, the sorrow he felt, she calmed it in a second. She ended the embrace, he released her slowly. They lingered in each other’s hands, savoring their final touch. The photo she’d taken of the two left in his hand.

“Goodbye.” the final word as they parted, she left for the helicopter. The Turks kept their weapons trained on him, only when Fia put her hand on Reno’s shoulder did they lower them, gradually. Each Turk got back in their respective vehicles and peeled out one by one. Reno flicked Zack the bird, getting smacked upside the head by Rude before they took off. Zack watched them leave one by one until he was standing alone, beneath the stars. 

It was way past midnight when he made it back to Seventh Heaven. The last patrons had just left when he opened the door to find his mom still cleaning dishes behind the bar. She turned to greet him with a smile.

“You two were gone a while.” she teased. “Your father already went up.” She eyed the red around his mouth, a knowing smile held on her face until she saw the gloom in his eyes. “What’s wrong, sweetie? Did you guys have a fight?” she walked over towards the boy. It took him a while to respond.

“…Not exactly.”  he said weakly. “Things got…complicated.” she held his cheek, an old undying habit from when he was little.

“Complicated? She turn out to be a Shinra spy or something?” she joked. He froze. She froze. “I was joking. She’s really a Shinra agent?”

“No.”

“Oh thank god.” Tifa breathed a sigh of relief.

“She’s Shinra. Period. Like an actual family member, last name and all.” Whatever face his mother made was just insane enough to convey the intense and volatile mixture of emotions going on inside her at that moment. She calmed herself. Taking a step back, she gave herself time to think.

“Did she hurt you?!” She said, full mama bear mode.

“No.” he reassured. “It’s just…complicated.” Zack told her what happened that day. He thought at least one of the things he admitted might consequat a lecture, but his mother stayed silent, absorbing the information. When he finished, Tifa took a deep breath. She crossed her arms, now dead serious.

“Do you love her?”

“M-Mom?!” Tifa minded his sputtering reaction.

“Forget that. Do you like her?” She pressed. 

“…Yeah.” 

“And do you think she likes you?”

“…I think so.”

“Okay. Then don’t over think it. These things work out. Just give it time and talk.” Zack nodded. Tifa smiled softly. “Now go wash up. You’ve got some—” she ringed her mouth, hinting at the red staining his lips. Zack jolted, then hurried up the stairs, embarrassed. Tifa watched him go, her smile fading as she finally put the plate up to dry. 

“Shinra, huh?” Her fist clenched tight, knuckles white at the thought that even beyond the grave, Shinra could hurt her family again.

The helicopter landed. Fia, Reno and Rude stepped out to a waiting Rufus Shinra. He scowled at the two and they bowed low, avoiding his gaze. 

“How very disappointing.” he scolded. “There will need to be changes made. Letting her go off with that thing? Your—”

“Zack.” Fia interrupted. “His name is Zack.” Rufus postured as a father.

“I’ve told you before,” he growled, “Sephiroth could use his body at any time to—” 

“Our family did a lot~ of fucked up shit to his. You know that, right?” She cut in again, the vitriol in her words cracked Rufus’ posture. He softened.

“I’ve been open about the sins of our family, Sophia.” he said in a vain attempt to quell his daughter’s anger. 

“It’s really different to hear a friend tell you all about how his DAD WAS PUT IN TUBE FOR FIVE YEARS!” Fia lost whatever cool she could’ve had. Rufus rolled with the verbal assault, avoiding the meat to pick at the potatoes.

“Did he put that on you?” he prodded.

“No, god no!” a quick rebuke. “He didn’t know. I lied to him! Cause that’s what we do! Lie!” Rufus tried to hold firm against the onslaught. 

“Lying—is how you survive. You have to understand, your safety is paramount. You’re the last of your kind. You have to—”

“About that, who was my mother again?” her sudden inquiry staggered Rufus, his usual air of superiority waned. 

“What do you— Her name was… Ifalna… you know this. She was—”

“The last Cetra before me? Like Aerith?!” Rufus froze, shooting the Turk twosome with a desperate, demanding look but they were as shocked as he was.

“Where did you hear that name?” he questioned.

“Where do you think?!” she shot back, stomping forward on Rufus, looking him dead in the eye.
“You told me my mother was the last of the Cetra race! That she was your love! But you don’t have any pictures of her. No momentos. Nothing!” She held for a rebuttal that never came, breathing heavy, rageful breaths. Electricity crackled around her in her fury, a chilling mist emanated from her feet whilst embers danced around her head. Rufus said nothing. Reno and Rude said nothing.

“Now I see. It’s not just about Sephirot or whatever the FUCK his name was! It’s about you, pretending to be open and honest and having your lie blow up in your face! The Cetra—They’re supposed to be gone! You told me that! But if Aerith was the last one and she died twenty years ago, then who was my mother?!” 

Silence. 

The three men’s silence held more truth than any word they could’ve spoken. Fia’s breathing hastened, her mind raced putting possible pieces together. 

“Was he lying to me?! Did another Cetra just pop up out of nowhere?!” They still held their tongues. The silence only made Fia angrier. 

“SAY SOMETHING!”

She exploded in fury, a storm of fire, ice, and lightning emanating from her being, knocking the Turks back and buffeting the barrier around Rufus. He held his arm out to protect his face, only lowering it when the storm waned. Her eyes glowed with a primordial light that trailed down her face, tracing her tears. And then she cracked, desperately rubbing her face. She looked at her hands, the hands of something not quite Cetran and not quite Human. 

“What…am I?”

Chapter Text

Cold… Dark and cold. The cold of the void, the cold of the waking dream. Zack opens his eyes to this void, a shuddering gasp against the frigid still air. He floated, existing despite the conditions of his existence. Every atom of his being screamed, in pain and in terror. But he could not. He was frozen, consumed. He managed to blink hard and he was in a white room. Tall legs stood around him, stilting lab coated men. He looked up at them both, but the one with the round rimmed glasses and unsettling face grabbed his attention. They were saying something he couldn’t understand, the words met his ears as audible spaghetti. The creepy lab coat grabbed him by the leg, lifting him from the ground. He cried, as any baby would, the discomfort of the hold was nothing compared to the sharp pain of a needle sticking deep within him. He awoke in a cold sweat, heavy lunged, and heart pounding. That dream again. Every night over the past few weeks, he’d had this dream. Each time, the scenes changed. Sometimes he was in the white room, sometimes he was on a battlefield. Waking up in a pod of green liquid, being gunned down by an army, watching a woman he didn’t know die in his arms, racing down the Midgar expressway on a motorcycle, fighting an alien creature, being in a wheelchair, and one time, only once; he blinked and he was in the void again, but fighting his father. He was cut to pieces, his father’s sword rending his very being asunder.  He wrestled and lost to the feeling in his gut that he needed to keep this from his parents. But one thing was for certain: these visions, they were memories. Someone else’s memories. And not just one person’s.

Fia hadn’t come around for a while. It was like a piece of him left with her. He remembered the last time she came, he’d basically derided her for showing up. It was said in jest, but even still, he wanted to take it back. The school gave him no answer as to where she lived, whether through discretion or not. All he had of her in his life was the picture he kept of the two. That stupid picture. Her smiling, picture perfect while he looked like a dumbass, beet red, eyes wide. A heavy wave of embarrassment hit him every time he looked at that photo. He wished she would come back and embarrass him again. Rolling himself out of bed, he got a knock at the door. He hobbled his way over and opened the door, his father on the other side. 

“Hey.” 

“Hey.” The traditional curt greeting of the Strife men. Zack sounded awful, and felt worse, amplified by how awful he sounded.

“You still mopin’ around in here?” Cloud said.

“…Yeah.”

“Girlfriend?”

Zack just shot him a look that told him everything.

“I can’t help you with that one.” He admitted, looking off to the side. 

“You don’t say.” Zack’s relationship with his father was rather odd from the outside looking in. The two basically mirrored each other when it was just them, however rarely they’d had just the two of them. It was practical, though. For the last two years, Zack was a junior partner in Strife Delivery Service; about when he started needing to walk with a cane on and off. Their bluntness made for good banter on those long jobs. It made for even better banter when the delivery was death. Monsters die sure, but they don’t stay dead for long. And when a monster showed up that folks can’t reasonably handle, SDS swooped in to solve the issue. It’d been a hot minute since the two went on a job together, but Zack could see the restlessness in his father. He was still young, but his body was breaking down. Zack didn’t want to think of the talk they might have somewhere down the line about passing the torch. 

“Well~, seeing as it’s your birthday—” Cloud said setting his eyes back on Zack.

“Oh no…” Zack groaned.

“—I thought we could go on that trip like we planned. Take your mind off it for a while.”

“Can’t we just do something here?”

“Do something here? In your room?!” Cloud stepped away from the door. “You don’t need to get any more raggedy.” Zack rolled his eyes and went to get dressed. When he got to the bathroom, he noticed how long his hair had gotten. His once chin length silver mop had lengthened to his shoulder. He paid it no mind and made a mental note to get a cut once they touched down. When he got downstairs, he felt them even before he had to hunch under the doorway. Both of his parents, Marlene and Denzel were waiting in the bar hall.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACK

they announced, blowing party horns and cheering. Zack hid his face and put on a not so good, forced smile for the people. His mother ran over for a nonnegotiable hug. She gripped him with all the strength of a behemoth, lifting him clear off the ground. He’d have hugged her back but it’s a little/very hard to do so when pinned in a bear hug.

“Oh~ my little boy.” she cooed. “My little man, I mean.” She let him down, allowing Zack to hug her back. 

“Dad was like 13 when he left home, right? That not an adult?” Cloud shook his head.

“That’s country, we don’t get down like that anymore.” 

“Whatever you say, dad.” Zack said. Marlene and Denzel stepped forward next. The siblings dapped each other up just like old times.

“‘Sup little bro.” 

“‘Sup Marl. Denzel.”

“Missed you boy.”

It’s been a minute since he’d see his brother and sister. Marlene had held the reins over the bar for about two years, with Denzel copiloting. The money Barret provided, however, allowed the two to take a journey on their own, see the world and maybe make a name for themselves somewhere new. But even through their travels, they wouldn’t miss a chance to rag on their baby brother one last time. Marlene wrapped her arm around Zack’s shoulder, pulling him down to her level. “Ya feelin’ big yet?” 

“No doubt he’s been missing us ever since we left.” Denzel chimed in, leaning on his other side. 

“I’ve been bigger than you most of my life.” Zack unhunched, almost pulling Marlene up with him. She looked at him, curiously. Denzel looked back, affirming her.

“Yeah~” Denzel remarked.

“Mmhmm.” Marlene added. “You changed.”

“Changed how?!”

“You woulda gone underneath or somethin’. And only if you knew I wouldn’t fall over.”

“Really?” Zack said, incredulous.

“Yeah, man!” Denzel corroborated, the two always double teamed him in arguments. “You always lowered yourself, bro. Started to feel like we were bullying you.”

“That girl came in and changed you, huh?” Marlene teased with a smirk.

“Please stop.” Zack begged.

“Why ain’t’cha chased after her, huh? What just cause she’s some Shinra girly?” goaded Marlene.

“What?!”

“Come on, lil bro. You told us all about her, Romeo lookin’ ass.” Zack stared down Marlene who looked up at him as coy as a fish. 

“Just leave me alone, alright?" Zack slumped over hard.

“Damn, she got you messed up!” Denzel said, putting a hand on Zack’s shoulder. “Look, it’s not good to keep these things bottled up, lil bro. If something happens you hit us with it, ok?”

“Yeah!” Marlene started shadow boxing. “And were some loud, hard hitting, crazy, ’storm a mothafuckin buildin’ for the bus fare then walk’ type muhfuckas, and you love us for it.” Marlene added, throwing a thumbs up. Zack chuckled, the thought of Marlene and Denzel raiding a Shinra compound like its 2007 couldn’t not be funny to him. The two light up getting a chuckle out of him, some form of happiness.

“That’s right Marl, nothing but love, sis.” 

“You're lucky we gotta hit the road.” The two give Zack a group hug. He hugged them back. There wasn’t biological or adopted, just brother and sister. They broke the hug and said their goodbyes and apologies that they could stay longer. Zack walked over to his parents who’d been letting the siblings catch up. 

Tifa walked over to him with that look mothers give their children when they’re worried about them but want them to keep their autonomy. “Still nothing from Fia?”

“Can we…not talk about that right now.”  

“Okay, okay.” she relented. “So… the trip?” She gives a conspiratorial look to her husband. 

“Let’s go.” Cloud motioned for the trio to take their leave. When they got outside, Tifa locked up the bar. Pity they couldn’t find a manager in time but the Seventh Heaven was no stranger to hiatuses. Zack laid eyes on a sight he hadn’t seen in a long time: Fenrir, dad’s old ride on the street. He must’ve been working on it in his free time to get it back in shape. A lot of bikes came and went over the years, he needed them for business; some broke down, some got damaged, etc. but Fenrir was special. The first one he’d bought and paid for. It’d been there for him against Kadaj, Bahamut, and Deepground, and only a few years ago rode its last ride. Until now that is. 

“Thought I'd seen the last of it?” He said, trying to find where the side car had gone off to. Memories came flooding back of the times when dad picked him up from school and he just knew the craziest side quest was to follow. Some of his best memories were in that side car. Instead, he found his dad’s newest ride, the Hardy Daytona Nidhogg (NH), behind it. It was a monster bike in its own right, but it made Zack wonder why he brought both out. Then, it hit him. His eyes widened, he heard the keys jingling in the air and caught them in one hand. He looked over at his parents who were expectedly smiling at him. 

“Just don’t crash it. We’ve got a long way to go.” Zack started over to his parents. He pulled them close, the loose, safe hug his parents had grown accustomed to.

“Thank you.” He whispered warmly for both his parents to hear. They all stood as one unit, breaking after a good spell, then Cloud and Tifa, and Zack got on their respective bikes. 

“You know how to work it, right?” Cloud worried, but Zack started up the engine no problem. He let revving up the bike and bolting down the street be his answer. 

“Show off.” Cloud said, a little miffed.

“Remind you of anyone?” Tifa teased.

“I hope not.” They race down the boulevard, Tifa’s ill-containted laughter echoing through the streets.They’d been planning this trip for a while. A vacation that happened to start on Zack’s birthday. They had an in with a hotel in Kalm, a nice gesture from a long time ago. That was their first stop and then down to Junon where they had another inn to stay at, take a cruise to the western continent and charter a boat to Nibelheim. At least, that was the plan. Things rarely go to plan.

Cold… dark and cold. The room of gray was black today, as it’d been for several days. Fia awoke in darkness, and went to sleep in darkness; numb. Rude, now her door guard, was basically useless. She barely left her room. Only leaving for a walk around the compound every now and again. Never even made a sound; as quiet as a mouse. Every now and again, he checked, just to make sure she was actually there. And she was. It was just sad. She’d been so lively, so impudent, so…Fia before. Now she was a shell, a living corpse. Rude stood at her door for hours on end with Rufus frequently coming by to ask some variation of the same question.

“How is she?”

And received the same answer.

“As always.”

Since she’d seen that document, those thin sheets of paper with those tiny little words that detailed the circumstances of her birth. She was shattered, her wings broken. She was grounded in the worst way. Because she couldn’t imagine having the desire to fly again. 

Rufus came by for the fifth time today to ask the same question.

“Still no—”

“With all due respect, sir” He interrupted Rufus, a rare thing for any Turk but especially Rude. “She’s not doing very good. Hasn’t been doing good ever since we showed her… that.” His words are like lead hitting the bottom of Rufus’ stomach. He swallowed hard.

“Then… the boy, we can—”

“We already offered.” Rufus blinked.

“Behind my back?!” He growled.

“Yes sir.” A curt, simple reply that had Rufus put head in his hand. Despair consumed him.

“Then we really are lost.” He collapsed in a sobbing mess, stunning Rude. Rufus Shinra was not one for vulnerability. He was raised on the philosophy that there are winners and losers and no one else. It’d taken him time to unlearn most of what he was taught but the scars of the teachings still lingered. Rude was mustering the strength to comfort him, when someone crossed the threshold into the hallway.

“Yoo-hoo!” Elena called in, bold and brash. “Looky what we’ve got he—Oh…” She stopped dead when she saw the state Rufus was in, mentally bouncing in between laughter, disgust and pity. Rude stepped between the two of them.

“Report.”

Elena pulled her cell from her pocket. Tapping a notification on the lock screen, it opened to show a duo of motorcycles, three passengers: Cloud, Tifa, and Zack. They were headed for Kalm. They were headed here.

“Little Sephiroth Jr, and his cuckold parents are coming to Kalm just as planned!”

“Elena!” Rude chided.

“What?! We were all thinking it!” She paused. “Or were you talking about the Sephiroth Jr thing? Or the cuckold thing? I thought we all agreed about this.”

“Attention.” Rude ordered. Elena scoffed.

“A thanks would be appreciated!”

“Now!” She sighed, pulling herself into firm rigid, practiced form. Rude went to kneel beside the husk of Rufus Shinra. “We put in a word to Cloud, Midgarsormr has reappeared. She might go for it since they’re coming here, but it’s not 100 percent.”

“Please!” Rufus said, grasping at Rude, a once unshakable man reduced to a manic flurry of tears. “Do whatever you have to! Just…my daughter.” In the end, sympathy won in Elena.

Rude guided the man’s hands off of him. “Consider it done.”  He stood up and without another word, went to Fia’s door with the rigidity of a robot, and knocked on the door. An empty gesture, he’d get no answer. He motioned for Elena to come to him. Rufus picked himself up and made himself scarce, not wanting the embarrassment to continue a moment longer.

“It’s Rude.” He waited for a minute. “I’m coming in.” He stepped into the void, like stepping directly into space if not for the light of a phone on the other side of the room. He reached for the switch, turning on the light, a groan emanating from the far side. She looked like a wreck. Her once well cared for hair had matted and grown long and split. Her eyes were sunken and her pallor had grown sickly. She sat on the floor, her once lustrous hair a ragged mop across her sunken face.

“Fia.”

She didn’t respond. Elena stepped forward, leaning down in front of Fia.

“Come on, girl. Your knight in shining armor’s coming.” She put on a brave face, but her heart was breaking for the girl. Despite her sass and bluster she cared deeply for her. Rude crouched down to Fia’s level, he took her hand. Her eye glanced down at it, showing that she was at least lucid. 

“Fia. He’s coming here. Him and his family. If you wanna go with them, you don’t need our permission.” At the mention of Zack’s family coming, Fia’s eyes sparked with life, fluttering from one point to next. She was thinking about something, seemingly coming to a realization. And it terrified her. 

“Fia?” Rude held her arm, a well intentioned gesture to shake her from her stupor. Her eyes went still. She calmed. No, she resolved. 

“Okay.”, was all she said, her voice hoarse from disuse but the sound of the word was a leg felling relief for the two. 

“O~kay, O~~kay!” Rude hooted, clapping in a sort of rejoice. “Elena can help get ready and—”

Elena cleared her throat. Rude turned around.

“Thank you.” Rude turned back to face Fia only to hear another throat clearing, this one even louder. He walked straight over to her, stopping at a discrete distance. “What?” he whispered.

“Why am I the one doing the hair/makeup routine?” she whisper-shouted back.

“Well… you know—”

“Don’t even finish that, Rude. It’s 2026.”

“Even still you’re infinitely more qualified!”

“How would I be any good at this?! I’ve been in nothing but a suit for nineteen consecutive years! You know how long consecutive is?” 

“Alright, I get it.” Rude capitulated.

“That means one right after the motherfucking other! I haven’t missed a day! I pack suits on my vacation days, I look weird without one on now!”

“Well between the two of us, who do you think can get her hair and makeup done?” He swiped his bald head to prove his point. 

“I swear you became bald on purpose just for moments like this!” Elena seethed. “Who the hell else is gonna do it, then?”

“I’ll do it.” Tseng’s voice broke from the entrance, shocking the two. Immediately, Tseng got to work. He had her washed, clothed and made up in short order. She looked like her again, if a little thinner, stark contrast to the gaunt figure she was beforehand. The two Turks had to deadlift their jaws off the floor. Once he’d finished, he intercepted the obvious question.

“I have three daughters.” He said as plainly as one could. And it was a plain thing to admit. For anyone who wasn’t Tseng.

“You have a family?!” Elena gawked, her eyes about to bulge out of her skull. Rude just pushed up his glasses. 

“I have many things you don’t know about.” He stood up to leave without a word but Fia held fast to his wrist. 

“Thank you.” she said. The stunned look he had on his face gave way to a softer expression. He’d half expected her to berate him once more. 

“Of course, ma’am.”  His cordiality knew no bounds, and he left without another word. 

“We ready to go?” Fia’s rough timbre was like sand paper, course from disuse.

“He’s coming here, you don’t have to—” 

“I wanna go out.” she replied quickly, and that was all she needed to say. Rude’s expression lightened ever so slightly. He turned to his junior partner.

“Get the car.”

Kalm was a bustle this time of year. They were the first to adopt solar power, and with the sun they got year round, they had no want for energy. The winding city streets were packed with tourists and denizens in a melting pot of energy. Many a person was playing card games, board games or just enjoying a picnic in the parks dotted around town or in the rest areas of cafes. The bazaars and stands in the market churned out hundreds of customers a day. Food, clothing, armaments, materia (as collector’ items) were the highlights of the bargain fair. At the center was the old Mako pump: the former line for the town’s mako supply and Shinra’s previous leverage over the town politics. Now it’s been decommissioned, left as a symbol of Kalm’s independence. The clock tower, the main event for any tourist, was closed today for renovations, much to the chagrin of many a traveler. The trio arrived at the town at midday during the lunch rush, peak hours. They saddled up their bikes and navigated the sea of people to the center of town. The town had grown in number and square footage over the last decade. The expanded borders meant expanded everything. Formerly just the Kalm inn, now Broden’s Inn given that multiple inns had opened up, stood firm outside the old pump. They entered into a bustling lobby only slightly less crowded than the outside. Cloud gave a sigh of relief, happy to be able to rest for a spell. Absent-mindedly, he rubbed his back, but the sassy look Tifa shot him had him at attention.  Zack snickered, walking over to the front desk. 

“Strife Party of three.” He said to the receptionist, an older gentleman by the name of Gabriel, given the name plaque in front of him. The man looked up with a tender smile, then froze, cocking his head to one side as if he’d seen Zack before. “Something wrong?”

“No sir, it's just… you look familiar.” The man said, falling back on his manners. 

“I’ve heard that before.” The man chuckled at that.

“Oh! We’d like to offer you a room upgrade to your second room. ”

“Really? So they’d both be suites?” Zack asked in disbelief. They already got their rooms at a reduced rate. 

“Yes sir.” Gabriel smiled back at him, the glint of investigation still in his eye. He reached down to grab two keys. “We had a cancellation and a few larger parties so it was in everyone’s best interest. Especially given our ties to Avalanche.” He glanced up at him with a conspiratorial look, “I’m sure you know what Avalanche is sonny.”

“Shinra’s judge, jury, and executioner.” Zack replied in confidence, getting a hearty laugh out of the old man. Cloud and Tifa made their way over finally. Zack gave a look to ask why they took so long, with Tifa side eyeing Cloud.

“There you are.” He said, only then noticing Cloud and Tifa. “O-oh!” He stammered. “Well, I’ll be. It was you! You’re the Strifes? You were here when—”

“Easy guy. We’re just tourists, today.” Cloud insisted, tempering the man’s excitement.

“I see, my apologies. This your boy?” He asked.

“It’s our man, now!” Tifa chimed in, wrapping an arm around Zack which made his eyes roll.

“Very good,” he approved, “very good.” He handed the keys to the trio as professionally as possible. “Breakfast is 7 to 11, and I’ll be out until about 9 tonight. You folks need anything, let me know soon as you can. Don’t mind what I’m doin’.” 

“Thank you so much!” Tifa beamed, the old man basked in her glory. Zack took the keys, giving one to Tifa and keeping the other for himself. Then the man presented Zack with a second key.

“Now I’m giving you another, because men don’t follow directions.” 

“Thanks…” Zack grumbled.

“Or you might get lucky and bring a friend over.”

“Okay, I’m going up!” exasperated Zack as he took his family’s bag upstairs. Gabriel wondered what he’d done wrong.

“Girl trouble.” Tifa mouthed before walking with Cloud upstairs. The man Gabriel, rubbed his beard before turning to meet the next guest. 

“Didn’t think I’d ever see a son of Sephiroth.” He thought to himself. “Let alone one adopted by Avalanche. What a crazy world we live in.”

Reno held a position over the empty Kalm clock tower, looking down at the Strife family roll up. He was in the midst of a sea salt ice cream when the trio showed up. Seeing Zack and Cloud there made his teeth itch. 

“Reno.” Rude called over on the communicator.

“Yeah, I hear ‘ya. I got eyes on the cuckold two and their Sephy spawn who.”

“…Reno.” he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“What?! We were all thinking it!” Reno protested. 

“That’s what I said!” Elena added over the comms.

“This is why we split you two up.” Rude chided the two. He turned back to see Fia laughing. She was laughing in the back seat. Elena snapped back to make sure her ears weren’t broken. 

“Why we split you two up.” she repeated through giggles. Rude felt a lightness seeing her laugh, maybe a sign of her mood turning. But a knowing knot formed in his stomach, one that he pushed down deep.

“Ooh, let’s go to the market first!” Fia gushed.

“Why?” Elena asked, perplexed. 

“The best reunion gifts are something you’ve bought yourself, right?” Fia said, slipping out of the door. How she managed to disable the child lock from the inside with no one noticing was a permanent mystery. Rude jumped out the car after her. “I’ll go with her! Stay on standby!” He ordered. 

Once he caught up to Fia, she wrapped her arm around his, making them a matched set. Rude bristled but did not waver, hoping desperately his face wasn’t red with embarrassment. He hoped in vain, he was practically a tomato. Once they had left, Elena hit the button on her earpiece twice, then switched over to a different frequency.

“Reno, you there?” There’s a brief pause.

“Yo.” Reno responded.

“Isn’t this bullshit?”

“No more so than usual.”

“I mean the way she’s acting. Like she wasn’t damn near comatose an hour ago.”

“Maybe that’s how she’s processing it.”

“Processing it?! We’re listening to her just now?”

“I’m not her father, she can take care of herself.” His words had Elena shook. 

“...You don’t mean that, do you?” 

“No…” he sighed. “but I don’t know what there is to do. I’m not close enough to her to really have an effect, and what’s one more authoritative voice gonna do, especially coming from me?” Elena wanted to argue, but he was right. Getting her out of bed was one thing, but it was up to her to get her head on straight.  

(But a thought ran through her mind. He’d always kept a breath away from actual responsibility when it comes to Fia. Only really contributed as a fun uncle at best and a deadbeat dad at worst. They all see her in a sort of daughterly light except for him.

“Are you distant from her because of—”

“Don’t.” he said with the weight of Rude and the tone of Tseng. Elena had no choice but to drop it.

“Fine.” she said simply, not wanting to rock the boat any further. They sat in the lull waiting for the awkwardness to wane.)

“Y’know you’re smarter than you let on.”

“Thanks?” He acquiesced. “Or shut the fuck up? I don’t know?” 

“Why do you think they split us up?”

“Rude and I work well together and you and Rude work well together, but we fill the same niche, I think.”

“Is that all—”

“Hold up I got movement.” Elena raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, the father and the cherub are headed Southeast. Could be headed towards the compound, ol’ cuckobo fros’ in the lead.”

“He really touched a nerve, huh?”

“You’re goddamn right! I was his RIVAL during that whole Meteorfall shit, a step ahead of him at every turn! And he doesn’t tell his spawn a thing about me!” Elena erupted in laughter at the jealous, ‘could easily mistaken as scorned lover’ dialogue she just heard. “Yeah, laugh it up, bitch.”

“Bring your dumbass down here. We’re tailin’ em aren’t we?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Rude and Fia could’ve passed for father & daughter if Rude didn’t dress like he assassinated people on the side (half right). Maybe an assassin who promised his daughter they’d spend time together so he took her on a job? But how the two of them looked didn’t concern him. Normally, a venture like this would be a ruse to shake him. A way to get free and travel on her own terms. But she was looking back. And waiting for him. Innocuous, and any other time, he’d be thanking Gaia for the easy work day.  But he had a bad feeling, that maybe rousing her this way wasn’t a good idea. He buried that feeling deep, lest he lose his mind.

The market held shops from end to end, a four lane highway of people looking at various things. Fia slowed down to look at the materia shop. Even though Materia had been relegated to collectors’ or specialty items, they were still a hot commodity. There were rumblings of natural materia becoming a new business venture but nothing had come of it, yet. Fia picked up one of the ice materia, and stared into it as if analyzing its contents. Picked up another, and another, nuzzling it to her face like a precious treasure. Rude flicked up his shades.

“Materia. Really?” He questioned.

“Doesn’t it look so beautiful?” She said.

“We have materia at—”

“Fresh from the shop, Rude!” She pressed, leaning into him. He pushed up his shades and cleared his throat. “Its the only way to go.”

“Noted.”

“What would be the most optimal setup?”, stunning him a beat. “To show off the materia.” She qualified, looking at him plainly.

“Well… a good armlet will hold six materia, a great one will hold eight—” While he was busy explaining, Fia got a good bit of materia: magic, support, and complete orbs made a cool gradient of jewelry. She moved on to an armorer, getting one of those good armlets and fitting most of her materia. Then when she saw she had a surplus, bought a wicked looking staff with rapier-like pointed ends to fit the rest. It cost a small fortune, but it didn’t seem to matter to her. Rude caught up to her.

“That’s a lot of stuff.” Rude commented. “You sure he’d like this?” She didn’t answer, as if he didn’t hear him at all. “Fia?” She looked at him with doll-like eyes. It caught him off guard.

“I was just gonna say, if you don’t wanna do this—”

“I have to!” She interjected, but caught herself. “I-I want to, too. It's like… to make everything right, I’ve gotta go for it!” Her words were cheesy, just like the old Fia, Rude thought. But the more he sat on the thought, the more he felt uneasy. He replayed the look Fia gave him in his mind, had he seen something in her face? A shake of the eyes? Fear? His focus was interrupted by a shout beyond his vision. Fia had finished up, waving him over to where she was. He followed shortly after, and when he got to her, she hugged him. It was a tight hug, a strong hug. She looked up at him, almost shining.

“Since when do you space out?” She smiled.

“It’s—” He cleared his throat. “It won’t happen again.” Professional as always. He glanced down and saw Fia had added a helmet to her haul. It looked like it was made of hard metal, a substance imbued with Mako enabling it to perform in magical effects. It came to rise in the wake of Shinra’s downfall. Magic was still necessary to survive, but mass produced materia was a no go. Hard metal provided the solution: a sustainable, magical armament, tool or material. 

She wrapped around his arm as they made their way back to the car. 

“Got what you needed?” she asked.

“Yep!” Fia bubbled, only adding to Elena’s suspicion. 

Rude got in the car right after and even with his lenses shielding his eyes Elena could see something was off. “Everything good?” Unbelievably, she saw a sight she didn’t even think possible. Rude was smiling, a small grin but it was there. The man had never smiled, not once in Elena’s near two decades of knowing him. Never. And yet here he was, like a different person. “Hey!”

“Huh?” He looked over, listless. He cleared his throat again, returning once more to professional courtesy. “We’re fine.” Rude said. Elena was weirded out before, but now she was straight up worried. “Report.” Elena got herself together before responding.

“Father and Son are headed Southeast. Could be heading toward the compound. We could tail ‘em? Arrange the meetup on our own terms.” 

“That sounds good.” Fia leaned forward to inject. 

“Reno.” Rude radioed in, who coincidentally hopped into the car at the same time.

“Yeah?” Rude looked back at his partner before starting the car.

“Nothing.”

Chapter Text

Cloud hits a double knock on Zack’s door, who opens up after some time. He hadn't even gotten unpacked, but not for lack of time. They’d gotten in hours prior, but Zack seemed too preoccupied with his own thoughts. His spacious vacation suite was just one big bedroom for him to wallow in. Cloud couldn’t have that, especially given what he planned for the day.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” The traditional greeting of the Strife men. “We got something we gotta do before we can fully enjoy ourselves.” He took a peak inside his son’s room, a peak of his already messy bed and unopened suitcase was all he could afford before Zack leaned on the door frame to block his view.

“I was just about to unpack.” Zack lied.

“I believe you.” Cloud said, not believing him for a second. “C’mon.” He motioned Zack to follow him. Begrudgingly, Zack left his room and followed his dad to his. Tifa had just gotten everything situated inside when they showed up.

“Hey boys.” She greeted the two with a warm smile. “Ready to hit the town?” 

“Almost.” Cloud said, a bit slick if he was ready to butter her up. “Got a client out here, wanted to get that out of the way before we get to it.”

“Oh really?” Tifa stood up and walked over to Cloud at an authoritative gait. It dawned on Cloud he was nowhere near as slick as he thought he was.

“Is this client a certain someone?” Caught red handed. Cloud just threw up his hands.

“You got me.”

“And why can’t I tag along?” She prodded, inching closer.

“I gotta prep him for it, man to man.” He held firm, but Tifa got a discerning squint in her eyes that made him want to fold. “I promise you, double the time we take is yours to do with as you please.”

“Do I get a say in this—?”

“Nope!” Tifa shot at Zack, turning back to her husband with a smirk. “And, I’ll let you go. But I don’t need time with him. I’ll give you my demands when you’re back.” Cloud turned to Zack, oblivious. He turned back to Tifa and she was right up on him, a serious, knowing look in her eyes. “Get gone you two.” She shooed them. “For a bit, get gone. Go.” Cloud was definitely not one to push his luck with his wife. The two exited the inn, and saddled up on their bikes.

“Where’re we goin’?” Zack asked the million dollar question.

“Just follow me.” Cloud replied with a two dollar answer. A bit weird but Zack could deal. They rode like bandits away from town, rolling off road heading southeast through the grasslands. Fiends still roamed the place but none were anywhere near fast enough to be any problem for them. Passing the coast, the brackish bay air gave way to the cold dew mist as they entered the forest and then the earthy sour smog of the swamplands. The clouds overhead replaced the noonday sun with a gray blanket. The dark gray that heralded the rain, whatever they were gonna do, they had better do it fast, or get soaked. 
They reached the edge of the lake, the old sign warning about the Midgardsormr from back in the day had faded and been scratched to hell, only ‘Mid……mr…Be…’ left legible. Cloud got off his bike, and pulled out some gadget about the size of a lighter. He flipped a switch and chucked it into the bog. A good throw too, out of sight by the time it hit the water.

“What are we doing out here?” Zack grunted, dismounting Fenrir.

“Hit the side button.” Cloud called over leaning on his bike. Zack furrowed his brow but did as he was told. Pushing the button opened up the sword panels on the front end. The six socket hanger, once housed the swords of Tyrfing, his fusion blade, now homed a single blade. Rather the hilt of one, sticking out from the socket. 

“You brought me a handle? What happened to the regular sword?”

“It’s hard metal.” Cloud explained. “Pull it out, you’re gonna need it in a bit.” Zack didn’t need to be told twice. With minimal fuss, he pulled the handle from the holster and the blade followed from nowhere. It was about as long as Cloud’s Tyrfing if not a little longer, but curved and about half as wide. 

“A curved greatsword.” he mused. “We all the way out here to sword fight or…?” 

“You gonna tell me about that girl or...” Cloud mimicked his son and it made Zack cringe.

“Oh no.”

“I’m serious. What’s been going on? All of a sudden, she’s Shinra and she stops comin’ around. Was it really just a fling? And what’s with you being so sleepy all the time?” There came a bubbling in the swamp—a rumbling. It traveled closer and closer to their spot on the bank, unseen. 

“No, it wasn’t just fling!” he fought back. “I just thought… maybe it was for the best.”

“For the best? Are you happier now?”

“…No.” he couldn’t lie.

“Do you think she’s happier—”

“I don’t know!” he retaliated, the glass in his thought left sore openings. “It’s just… someone like her, with someone like me—”

“Someone like you?” Cloud prodded.

Zack held silent, his father made note of that but eyed the swamp with suspicion. “We’ll talk about this later, we’re on the clock right now. Don’t get eaten.”

“What—” Zack noticed it too late, it burst forth from the murky depths, wrapping its jaws around him. A long winding body loomed large risen out the water, veiled by the shower of water rolling off its wide, hooded back. Its scales shone a glossy black, its eyes glowing a sickly amber through its own shadow. It hissed, a low rumble emanated from deep within the monster's throat, shaking the surroundings like an earthquake as with Zack’s leg dangling out its mouth. “Didn’t Avalanche killed this thing already?!” he strained, forcing open the Sormr’s jaws.

“It’s a fiend.” Cloud said. “It don’t stay dead.” The serpent shook and flicked its head violently, desperate to get Zack loose like a stubborn piece of food stuck in its teeth. He glowered down at his father still leaning on his bike.

“A little help?!” Zack yelled out from the creature’s mouth.

“Little overkill, don’t you think?”

“YOU JUST SITTING BACK WITH YOUR FEET KICKED UP!” He roared, but quickly got launched out of the serpent's mouth. Zack landed for but a moment before the serpent struck the spot with its wicked tail. The impact shook the forest, and left a sizable trench in what used to be part of the bank. Zack was above the snake, dodging the creature's strike with a cat’s grace. Landing in the bog, he looked to see where his dad was; he was still standing there, leaning on his motorcycle. The snake rushed at Zack. It seemed completely fixated on him, shooting a double beam of toxic venom at him. Zack skipped on the surface of the lake, making quick angles to avoid the poisonous lines. 

“You’re gonna have to get serious you wanna be back before it starts raining!” Cloud shouted a lecture from the sidelines like a little league coach. Zack’s frustration at his father was quickly toppled by his anger at the fiend as he skipped across marsh. He got his footing but only a split second later the serpent was on him, mouth wide to swallow him whole. A satisfied rumble shook from its throat, before diving back into the deep. 

It was down there 5 seconds… 

then 10… 

then 20…

He was fine. Cloud knew he was fine. He had to be. He knew his son’s strength and how terrible he was at hiding it. 

30 seconds… 

45 seconds…

But even still, anything could happen… Cloud slowly raised his hand, reaching for his sword. 

60 seconds…

Right as he touched finger to grip, the mire exploded. Zack landed behind him, heralding the head of the once new, Midgardsormr. It landed with a mighty thud, and began disappearing into Mako shortly after. He shook himself once to get some of the water off, then gave his father a look that would’ve sent a chill down anyone else’s spine; had it been someone else. 

“You sent me in there against a boss monster alone?!”

“That was just a warmup.” Cloud said simply.

“A warmup?!” Zack fumed, but his thoughts came to a halt when his father readied his sword. He eyed Tyrfing curiously, it was just the base but his father was the wind with his blade, fused or not.

“You called it, kid. Swordfight, remember?”

“…yeah.” he stepped back, pulling his sword.

“It was almost everyday when you were a kid. One day you decided you didn’t want to play-fight anymore. Thought you just grew out of it. ‘Til I saw you doing it to your own shadow.” Cloud rolled his shoulders to warmup his joint. “Now, I understand growing out of it, but… well, you didn’t, did you? Something got in your head.” 

“It’s not that complicated, dad.” Zack rolled his eyes, turning away for a moment but the look in his father’s eye let him know he saw through that lie. But he didn’t retort, getting in their old sparring stance, waiting for Zack to do the same. His son scoffed, but returned the stance, his swordpoint out in front of him. They held there, the wind rustling about them. The oncoming rain clouds loomed overhead, threatening to wash them away. Yet to them, there were no clouds, no forest, no animals, no Gaia. Just the two of them. The air around them ceased its buffeting gale, as if the atmosphere itself was holding its breath. 

Cloud made the first move, his speed nearly caught Zack off guard, only having an instant to block. The force of the strike had him pushed back several meters, his father bearing down on him the whole way. He’d underestimated him. For a few months there, he’d seen that cane and thought his dad another fragile doll to be mindful of. But he was a monster in his own right. Zack had only forgotten.

“Kinda seems that complicated.” 

“Yeah…how’s that?” Zack faltered, struggling to gain footing against his father. 

“If this were really all it took to hold you down, I’d be pulling you out of Sormr guts right now.” A flash of his blade and Zack was flung back, only the stable cypress could halt his involuntary flight. He hung to the tree, now slanted, scanning the swamp floor for his father. He found him right in front of him. A vertical slash, dodged to the side; Zack leaps to an adjacent tree, his father hot on his heels, not letting him breathe for even a moment. He landed, dodged a swipe and bolted; this cycle repeating from one tree to the next. Zack landed, ready for the incoming slash, he was ready this time. But it never came; his father was gone. Frantically, he searched for him, eyeing each adjacent tree. And then he was falling, the body of the tree had been slashed. No time to ask when, he jumped desperately to the next tree, his father made his move, swiping him from his blind spot. He barely had enough time to block, the force of Cloud’s strike sent him back down to the ground. He skidded into a boulder, staggering to his feet. Cloud landed a good distance away, eyeing his son with a smirk.

“Why the glare?” His words were a shock. He was glaring at him. But it wasn’t in fear, or betrayal. He felt it was something deeper.

“You’re wiping the floor with me! I got every right, don’t I?” He stood up, the boulder behind him crumbling. It was his turn to attack. A straight forward attack, trying to get his dad back for pressing him earlier. Cloud just stepped out of the way like a matador.

“No. I've seen that look before.” Cloud raised his sword, blocking Zack’s follow up with ease. “The look of someone holding himself back, despite how easy it would be to cut loose.”

Zack bucked against his words. His dad didn’t understand but he was gonna make him. He charged his father so fast it looked like seeing triple. Using his speed, he cut angles around his father, trying to get him to flinch—to show an opening. He saw one, at least he thought he did, a vertical slash behind him was his call, an effortless block was Cloud's answer. He didn’t even turn around, didn’t even need his eyes to read his son; the impact created a shockwave lifting soil and breaking the air around them.

“C’mon man.” He batted his son away, rolling his shoulders, a satisfying pop and crack sounding. 

“You bored already, then finish me, then.” Zack taunted. An obvious amateur goad. But his father humored him.

“When you were a boy, I was shocked at how good you were.” Dashing straight at him, in a blink, he’s gone. Zack knew he couldn’t trust his eyes, so he relied on instinct. He was above. Zack heeded his gut and saw his father bearing down on him with an overhead slash. He dodged the downward slash and read the following thrust. Just what he was hoping for. He dropped his sword behind him and clasped Tyrfing between both hands, stopping it in its tracks. Then, he lifted. Cloud felt his mind start to sputter and give as he was lifted up by his sword by his flesh and blood. His feet dangled, his body weight leaning in on his cross guard and in that moment, a question he’d always contemplated was answered for him. 

“BET YOU’RE PRETTY SHOCKED NOW!” Zack growled before launching the sword into a tree, intending to end the fight when his discombobulated father hit the ground. And then, felt a hit on the back of his head. Then cold steel against his neck. Cloud had leapt behind him and grabbed his sword. He froze, his breath measured. Then, Cloud bonked him in the head.

“Ow!” He yelped. Cloud moved the sword away from his son’s throat, the edge never touched him.

“That was a stupid move.” he scolded. “Only an ego maniac would lose to a move like that.” 

“I thought it was pretty good.” Zack grumbled. His father held his back and whinced. Zack gave a short chuckle.

“Don’t tell your mother.” Cloud insisted.

“If I don’t tell her, and you don’t tell her, then we’re both gonna be in trouble.” 

“I don’t recall raising a snitch.” Cloud held out his hand and Tyrfing returned to him. Zack’s eyes went wide.

“When’d you get that upgrade?”

Cloud only smirked in reply. “You wanted to beat me without destroying me.”

Zack lowered his gaze. 

“It’s admirable, but it’s not always possible. There are people in this world more evil than any fiend.” Cloud returned his sword to its holster.

“Like Shinra, yeah I know.” Zach murmured.

“Speaking of Shinra, why didn’t you go after the girl? Really?” 

“I didn’t think you’d be this interested in my love life.” Zack shrunk into himself, folding his arms in to make himself small.

“Of course I’m interested.” Cloud said, placing a hand on Zack’s shoulder. The tender touch perked Zack up, looking at Cloud. He didn’t know his father could smile like he did. Full of warmth and love. “You’re my son.”

“But—” He stammered. “she’s Shinra.”

“And?” Like the qualification meant absolutely nothing to him. “Did she live up to the hype?” The young man paused; he thought back to the times they shared, analyzing each event for some clue, some reason to believe she could be a Shinra, just like the people he’d grown up hearing about. 

“No.” he made up his mind. “She was amazing.” And she was. Even in his repressed state, Zack could only feel joy thinking of her. “I guess, in some way, I was afraid of being me. I’m not… normal. I know that. Maybe it’d be better if she was with someone normal.”

“Nah man.” A swift fatherly pat on his son’s shoulder. “Invalidating yourself like this isn’t better for anyone.” He went back to the NH. Rain broke from the steel clouds floating overhead. “Now we’re gonna go see her, and you’re gonna have to—” He looked back at his son, his unmoving, frozen son. Time magic. He leapt off his bike and rushed towards his son. A fireball intercepted his path, he jumped backwards, glaring at the spellcaster. A horned helmed figure, in a dark body suit clad in spots with plate armor, and an armlet and staff full of materia. The figure spoke in a distorted rasp.

“Cloud Strife! Shinra’s legacy has come for you!”

The Turk crew followed the trail left by Zack and Cloud. They passed by the compound, bemusing Elena and Reno but Fia seemed unbothered. Rude just kept driving. He hadn’t recovered from earlier, the way he felt when she clung to him. He’d never had a kid, no time for relationships. He was a Turk through and through, little time for personal freedoms. That was his philosophy until today. Tseng had children, in theory, a spouse too. And that awoke something in him. He’d seen that girl grow up, from a baby to the woman she was now and not once did it dawn on him that he might have to act as a father, an actual parental figure. He’d watched her plunge off the deep end with only “following orders” as his play. He needed to do better. He wanted to. When they pulled up, Fia leapt out the door before they could even park at the outskirts of the forest.

“Hey! Wait a second!” Elena rushed to get out of the car. Reno got out and jumped over the roof and Rude followed his lead in short order “Don’t just run off on your own!” Elena huffed. She prattled on a lecture at Fia about how they were there to protect her. Reno stood in the distance between Rude and Elena. But it was Rude who noticed it. The small, innocuous but grave detail. Fia was wearing the armlet full of materia. He dashed towards her, but only just got past Elena before he felt the cold. Fia’s Blizzaga had frozen them. Rude’s head was the only thing free from the glacier. He struggled desperately, head and neck flexing this way and that. A tender hand held his cheek. Fia looked at him, looked at all three of them; the people who’d really put in the effort of being guardians, of being parents. She almost faltered in her mission. But she had to. Deep in her heart she knew what she had to do. For the first time today, she smiled. She smiled for them, and though Tseng wasn't here, she smiled for him too. 

“Fia!” He strained. “What are you doing?!” He should’ve known. That fear he saw in her eyes. It wasn’t a trick. She was hiding it from him, hiding her intentions with sweet compliance. A facade of normalcy, and he fell for it because he wanted to make believe. 

“I’m sorry for earlier, Rude.” Her hand left his cheek. She looked at each one of them. “I know… I’ve been a burden to you all, and really I shouldn’t even be here. This… thing that I am.” She shook her head and beamed at them, tears streaming down her face. “Thanks…for everything.” The words only made him struggle harder. The words of a last goodbye. He should’ve known. The ease of getting her to agree to this outing, the way she acted in town.

“FIA!” Rude let a pained scream, rambling, ordering, begging her not to go. She walked alone into the forest, donning her helmet. Rain fell.

Chapter Text

Rude jerked against his icy prison with all his might. Only his head and neck were free from the iceberg. When did she learn to control materia? Not just anyone can fling a third level spell, and with such finesse. Rude’s pride was a far second to his worry. What was she thinking? Going into the forest kitted out with materia. To fight Cloud and Zack? Why? Even with this magic power, she was up against a veritable clone of the greatest SOLDIER and Cloud Strife, the man who beat the greatest SOLDIER. He stopped himself. No, not that. He had to get out of this iceberg. Focusing his chi into an orb inside him. His body ran hot like an iron, the ice around his body beginning to melt. In just a few short minutes, his arms and chest were free. He raised his hand above his head, a quick, decisive strike, shattered the ice beneath him, freeing the rest of his body. His knees buckled, collapsing underneath him. But he didn’t have time to kneel, driving himself upwards. He turned to his Turkcicle partners, driving his fist into calculated areas to remove them from the iceberg. Elena and Reno collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. 

“Goddamn, kid!” Reno said, “Worst way to shake us, ever!” Rude yanked the two to their feet.

“Get up!” he barked. “No time for complaining! Fia’s in there right now and we gotta go get her before she does something stupid!” His orders fell on deaf ears; they only stayed standing for a moment before falling back down. 

“GET UP!” He went to drag them up again but his legs gave out. On the ground again, he’d used more of his chi than he thought keeping himself up. His body was a numb, shaking mess. He cursed his uselessness. He cursed how foolish he was, believing everything had just changed for the better. And he cursed, the feelings inside him, those feelings he’d unearthed merely an hour ago—the dread of losing a child. Despite it all, he dragged himself on the ground, desperately trying to get to the forest—to get to Fia.

“Rude!” Reno called out to his partner. “You’re not gonna make it, buddy. You’re just gonna hurt yourself.”

“I’m not gonna just let go off and—”

“If what she’s trying to do is what I think she’s doing, then she’ll be fine.”

“How the hell can you say that!”

“It’s Cloud Strife.” Reno said, with begrudging respect. “He never lives up to expectations.”

Caught with no sword, and under fire, he had to think fast. They slung Fira interspersed with gray colorless missiles of magic that Cloud had no answer to—unable to do much but survive. His damned back, he couldn’t outpace his foe. Barely dodging another explosion, he hid behind a tree, his options few. He needed to get to the NH, with Tyrfing he’d be able to put up a fight. Just as he’d begun to plan, from the air, they appeared in front of him. Somehow they’d escaped his senses. Haste. A staff of potent magic held outstretched to Cloud’s face. He only had one move. With one hand deflecting the staff upwards, he rushed in and turned his mass to slam them with his shoulder, staggering his assailant backwards. One of many moves his wife had him learn. He’d kiss her when he got back. Making a mad dash for the NH, he only had seconds before the figure was on him again. Reaching the bike, he felt above him an unsettling heat; a Firaga orb, ready to detonate. 

It blew in a spectacle of crimson flames and scattered metal scraps. Three of the swords of Tyrfing flew out from the blaze in random directions across the forest. The hard metal wouldn’t be destroyed so easily. The figure stood, breathing heavy, watching the mess transpire. The fire of the wreck blazed in the face of the heavy downpour. Stepping closer to observe the wreckage personally, they stepped too close, the still living Cloud burst forth, a sword in each hand. The figure had mere moments to put up a defense. But they froze. Heavy breaths and shaking hands; the telltale signs of an amateur and Cloud clocked it immediately.

“Who the hell are you?” He sought to interrogate the figure but was met with an explosion of fire, ice and lightning. He jumped back, feeling there was something familiar about the attack, but paid it little mind. Fused his offhand sword before he hit the ground and went to grab another. Right as he grabbed it, he could feel his body slow. Looking down to see the sigils of a Chronol ward, he saw that it also held Zack in place. He managed to escape with the sword before he could be stopped, a bolt of Thundaga came down on the spot. A sword swipe split the bolt, splintering it into static threads. It was a standoff, Cloud and the figure stood 10 meters from each other, engarde. Freeing Zack was his top priority, which meant either breaking his attackers concentration or letting the spell run out naturally and keeping them from reupping it. 

“I don’t wanna fight you.” He paused for a beat to watch how the figure would react to being talked to. “And I’m guessing, this type of thing is new to you. But if you’re trying to make me think you’re some Shinra zealot, you oughta know Rufus and I aren’t enemies.” The figure hesitated, it was clear this info was a shock and Cloud sought to take advantage. “Seems like you didn’t know he was still alive.” He began inching closer, shortening the distance like boiling a frog. “Or maybe, you did and you didn’t think I’d know. You seem young. You’re obviously misled by someone, or you’re lying. But a lot has changed in two decades.”

“Shut up!” The voice of the figure was clearly flustered, they raised their staff. Cloud raised his sword to block the incoming magic but it never came. A whiff? He continued.

“And get this, my son’s actually in love with a Shinra.” The figure fully froze. Like a deer in headlights, completely shell shocked by what they just heard. Cloud kept inching forward. “That’s him back there.” He pointed out Zack, still frozen in Stop. The figure flinched upon looking at Zack.

“It’s why we’re really out here. I was just about to tell him we were going to their compound. At the least, we’ll talk with her, maybe get some closure since it's possible she don’t like him no mo—”. 

“SHUT UP!” They yelled, the marshland transforming, a wave of flowery and viney growth emanating from the figures feet. The vines pushed outward, knocking the remainder of Tyrfing fangs into the water and sprouting an array of flowers along their lengths of common native kinds. The rain seemed to stop, too, but Cloud could only focus on one thing: this type of power, the power of the Ancients. “None of that matters now. Time to die, old man!” 

“Old man?” Cloud went to retort a one liner, but he happened to look up, awestruck. The blizzard spell shot earlier wasn’t a miss. The icy spell had been shot skyward, collecting the rain droplets and making ice spikes. Cloud had held back, believing they were an amateur they could disarm without much fuss but this level of thought… The rain of spikes forced his hand, he had to act fast, if the needles came down he’d have to block them, leaving himself wide open. It’d hurt, but he’d manage. The spikes began to fall, Cloud fused his offhand sword into Tyrfing and sent forth a powerful swipe skyward. The sheer force of the strike sent galeforce winds scattering the spikes through the air. He’d planned on being ready for the followup attack, yet felt a beam of magic hit him in an odd angle, sending him into the bog.

He was down there 5 seconds…

then 10…

then 25…

“No.” The figure whispered, they approached the lake to see if any of the spikes had actually landed. “No-nononono! No way! This wasn’t—” 

The lake split, a vacuum wave of splitting force cut through the air, the rain and the clouds above. In between the split was Cloud Strife, glowing with a fiery blue aura, the full Tyrfing Sword in all its glory. His eyes a glint of the legendary fierceness only myths and legends could recount.

“A duel to the death?”

The figure lifted their staff in one last attempt to appear powerful, arcane colorless light growing at the staff end. It shot a beam of unelemented magic, searing the ground as it approached the aged soldier. Tyrfing’s blade held true against the magic, splitting the gray light into an array of colored beams: red, blue, green, violet, cyan, magenta. In the blink of an eye, the blade was in the figure's face, the scattered beams dividing trees, ground and lake bed in his dash. It was over, the inevitability of it all hit the caster all at once. 

This was the end.

“Not interested.” 

The blade smacked across the figure's face, peeling back the helmet like a can opener, revealing who was underneath. Cloud stalked over to his downed opponent. It was a girl. And he knew her. His eyes went wide, and he ran to the girl, despite the pain growing in his body; fatigue setting in. The figure now unmasked staggering to her feet, almost slipping in the mud. In her struggle he was able to get a better look. Could it be? No, it was her.

“Hey, you’re—”

“Dad?!” Zack shouted from across the way. Their battle having finished not too far from where it started, Zack rounded the hill to see his father, standing over an exhaustedFia. Zack’s mind was a flurry of scattered, unfinished thoughts. A moment ago he was talking with his dad and right in front of him and it was like he didn’t even blink but he was gone. Dad’s bike was in flaming pieces and he was nowhere to be found. His first instinct was to call out and search. Only called out but once before he saw the scene: his father, sword in hand, above Fia in some crazy battle getup. His first instinct: he was dreaming. Something must have knocked him out and he was dreaming. It wasn’t his usual dream, no way this was someone’s memories, and it didn’t have the same fogginess. He thought of a bunch of things to say, some casual, some sarcastic… some desperate but when he saw the look on her face, the shock and fear in her face, it put a pit in his stomach. Fia looked about ready to bolt, but Zack was on her in mere moments.

“Wait!” She turned to run. He reached out for her hand, grazing it at first, his instincts kicking in. He broke through his chains, grabbing Fia’s wrist. She whirled around, mortified. The look nearly drove Zack to relent but he persisted. Her expression softened into a melancholic grimace.

“You weren’t supposed to see me like this?” she quivered.

“How was I supposed to see you?” he asked.

She didn’t respond

“I’d like to… see you again.” He moved closer but that only made her turn away more.

“You shouldn’t—” 

“Why?!” he interjected, desperately trying to hold on to her.

“‘Cause I’m Shinra, dummy,” her words a whimper. “you didn’t get that the first time? People like me don’t deserve people like you.”  

“People like you?”

“Yes!” She whipped around to face him, tears streaming down her face. “The Shinras of the world! The type of people who lie, cheat and kill. The type of people who take 15 year old kids and experiment on them! The type of people who…use people like you. You get it now?” Zack internalized her words. He thought about the conversation he’d had with his father earlier and how he felt about her—how he felt about her now. There was a long lull before Zack spoke a single word.

“…No.” his words rocked her to the core. 

“Why?!” A near petulant tone. 

“I don’t care.” he said, bluntly.

“Wha—” she staggered but Zack moved closer, grabbing both of her arms.

“Because I’m a liar too. I lied to my family about how I was dealing with this—with you! I looked everywhere for you! Nobody knew where you were; no teachers, no students, nobody!” He pulled out that photo of the two in the car. She recoiled like it was kryptonite. “I searched up and down every district with this! And when I couldn’t find you in Edge, I scoured Midgar, thinking Shinra must still be there! You know why?!”

“This isn’t happening.” She muttered to herself over and over again during his ramble. Grabbing her head as if the words brought her pain to hear.

“Fia… I lo—” 

She let loose a primordial wail, the vines and flowers sprang forth and flew out in all directions, moving the very foundation of the earth as it grew. The force of the immaculate growth forced Zack and Cloud to fly free of the land or be swallowed by it. Fia became veiled in bright light and just as soon as she began to glow, she vanished without a trace. Cloud limped over to the spot she disappeared at, collapsing on the spot. Zack rushed over to help his dad, the burning question slipping out from his lips.

“Dad, what’s going on?!” 

His father groaned, leaning on Zack for support as he struggled to stand.

“Fia…” he strained, finally upright. “She attacked me.”

“What?!” Zack quivered, the scenario was already hard for him to process.

“We gotta find her.” he grimaced. 

“Hey! Lean on me!” His father acquiesced, the two hobbling over to Fenrir, he let him down gently.

“Zack…” His breaths were heavy. “I don’t know… what happened… or why she attacked me. But we came here to… Shinra has been here in Kalm, and we were going to see her after this.” Zack stayed silent, focusing on his father’s words to keep himself sane. A welling came from within him; a calling. “Listen, Zack. If she’s in a state like this… whatever’s gotten into her, we gotta find her before something happens, got it?!” Cloud’s words availed him clarity, Zack would dig within himself—in his own nature to find his true strength. The true nature of his being manifested itself on his body. A wing, one angelic gray wing sprouted from his back, tearing his shirt from his body. He rose, elevated by an ethereal force, the majesty of his being made manifest for all to see.

“Got it.” Was all he said before rising straight up and rocketing to the forest’s edge. The sight of the wing filled Cloud with dread, but he was calmed by his son’s voice; his words. He was still him. It was easy to forget who he looked like and what it must look like to others around him. He was so far from…him in every way. He was genuine, he was his. And he’d be damned if he would take anything else from him.  Fenrir was covered in vines but still intact. A quick few slashes were all he needed to get it free.

“Let’s go. One last time, Fenrir.” He started up his old ride and headed further into the swampland, putting his faith in his son to stay him.

Zack blasted through the forest with sonic speed, reaching the edge in mere moments. He scanned the area, desperate to see a lock of blonde hair. If what his father said was true, Fia was in danger. He moved with pure instinct, a dog chasing a car, not a lick of an idea of what he’d do once he reached her. But he knew he’d do something, he had to. No more being passive. A wall of wind blasted Zack in the stomach. It wasn’t natural, Zack twisted him out of the gale, looking down to see the three Turks down below. He landed hard, his impact scattering debris everywhere. The Turks had to hold their ground, a difficult task having just thawed out from their icy prison. It was a fight to keep their knees from quaking, their arms from shaking and that was before beholding the being before them. He seemed even taller than before, standing chest out and straight up like a different person. It was all too familiar. His looming presence left his front enshadowed, only his haunting snake-like eyes were unobscured as he stalked forward. They were engarde, taking a defensive position around him, just like they’d done before, but he didn’t care. Hands were at his sides like he wasn’t afraid of anything; he walked right up to them.

“Where’s Fia?” he demanded, a harsh grit in his deepened voice that wasn’t there moments ago.

“We should be asking you that.” Reno bit back. Zack sneered and turned back, intending to take off again, a gust of wind hitting the back of his wing halted his ascent.  They had his attention, now. Rude had his hand punched out, ready to throw another if necessary. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” Rude challenged him, a goading taunt that Zack swallowed the hook.

“To do your job, apparently.” Zack growled, his piercing eyes staring daggers at the bodyguard.

“Cool it with the sarcasm.” Reno said, his own voice dripping with sarcastic vitriol. “We don’t even know who you are right now.” He pointed his baton straight at Zack, a nod indicating he should give him an answer.

“Are you seriously trying to get me back, right here?! Right now?!” Zack pushed forward into them, The two Turks pulled back, maintaining their defensive position, almost walking back into the leftover glacier.

“Who-ho-ho-hoa, easy there Sephiroth junior, we’re just tryin’ to talk right now.” His words stopped Zack in his tracks.

“…What did you call me?” 

“Oh, I hope I touched a nerve.”

“Worthless…” Zack turned to leave one last time.

“ELENA!” 

He heard the shout and realized too late where he’d fucked up. The electricity lit up his nervous system like a christmas tree. Shinra Special grade: Stun grenades. It was like his entire body was fighting him for control. He’d been shocked before but nothing like this. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t talk, he couldn’t think. Everything was lost in the spasming of his body and mind. 

Reno ran up and with a flick of his wrist, entombed Zack in his pyramid. Ol’reliable. The structure was nigh impenetrable from the inside with the trade off for its easily destructible outer shell. A perfect maneuver for pursuit and capture missions. Zack felt the walls of his golden prison, pushing with force on the walls but didn’t feel them so much as budge. Reno knocked on the wall as if it were glass. 

“It dissipates force, moron.” he taunted. “Good luck breaking it from the inside.”

“What the hell are you doing?!” Zack lashed out. “You’re fighting me when Fia’s somewhere out there! You’re her folks, right?!”

“We’re her guardians.” Rude corrected, a tinge of guilt lingering within him. “But our primary concern is keeping her from threats like you.”

“Threats like me?! Bullshit! We saw each other for weeks and you didn’t—”

“A failure on our part.” he corrected again.  We won’t make that mistake again. Our duty is to ensure her safety.” He pushed up his glasses. ”Even at the cost of certain pleasures. In order for her to even be happy, we gotta make sure there’s still a planet she can live on.” With each word, the rage welling up inside Zack grew hotter and hotter, wearing on his face. 

“Besides” Reno chimed in. “she only hung out with you so she could shake us.” He paused to let his words sink in.” Something inside Zack snapped when he said that. He felt a pull of a voice within him, screaming, demanding he turn them into flesh. “You know that right? You think we’d leave her with something like you unless we had to?! He laughed a cocky boorish laugh. Rude looked back disapprovingly but said nothing. He was right. Elena kept her eyes on Zack the whole time. She saw his face fall, a chill running down her spine.

“Something like me?” Zack whispered to himself. Reno started off to the car, a confident smirk on his face. 

It happened in slow motion. The shouts of his teammates, the shattering of glass were afterthoughts to the pain that erupted from his chest. He was pinned to the ground by a spike, no, a m sword piercing straight through him and into the ground beneath him. He was dragged forward by the force of impact and the force of Zack pushing the blade deeper in. Reno grasped at the blade in his chest, his vision getting spotty and blurry. 

“I DON'T KNOW WHY—” his voice was as loud and booming as thunder. He pushed the blade deeper, forcing Reno to the ground, the pain the only thing keeping him conscious. “INSECTS LIKE YOU—”  with a fling of left arm, Reno went flying into their car. He bounced off the trunk, the force sending him up and over, landing in a limp heap behind it, out cold. “CAN’T REALIZE JUST HOW CAREFUL I REALLY AM!” Elena’s knees gave. Rude came in swinging; right cross, deflected, follow up spinning hook kick, blocked undaunted. Rude focused his chi into his fist. This was for his partner, this was for the world, this was for Fia. If he let this evil return it would be the end of all them. He slammed it down hard against the earth beneath then. The impact was like TNT, the ground shook, cracks forming as the wound took hold in the land they stood on. 

Zack wasn't even moved. 

Rude looked up in terror, his attack barely registered to him. He threw one last punch. Caught. Zack broke his wrist like a pretzel, Rude screamed in agony. He released him, Rude clutched his limp, useless hand, groaning in pain. Zack just walked over to him.

“You people are made of cardboard!” He smacked Rude, the seemingly light slap broke Rude’s glasses, his nose, and rattled his head, spouting blood. A fall would’ve followed, but Zack grabbed him by the collar, hoisting him up with one hand. “Did you really think you could take me?!” He flung him skyward, Rude flew through the air. Zack was there, before him, at the apex of his flight. “Did you really think you could fight me off?!” A slash of his sword sent Rude plummeting to earth. He bounced off the ground in a cloud of dust, gasping for the breath knocked out of him. Zack floated to the ground, looking down at Elena who’d spent this time hyperventilating on her knees. Eerily he levitated over to her, her fear growing and growing as he approached. In her mind, she was back at the North Crater. She hated this detail. She hated having to watch this mini me Sephiroth. She hated that Cloud and Tifa were too stupid and too noble to strangle this demon brat in the bathtub once his eyes changed color.

Zack stood before her; she didn’t dare look up. “You’re smarter than them.” His cold words sounded nothing like him. “Not so eager to throw your life away for your pride. If you wish to keep your head, stay out of my way.” An easy choice. Just stay down, let him go. Fuck the mission, live. It would be over if only she did nothing. Her vision focused on her teammates limp bodies. An ember inside her grew, her pride as a Turk. She cursed how stupid she was, standing up and raising her gun at Zack. 

“No…” She forced out through chattering teeth. “You’re not taking one more step.” Zack said nothing, shooting a bone chilling glare at her. He made a subtle movement like signing an autograph, and the gun was in several pieces. Elena fell backwards, the inevitable approaching, she would end up like her teammates. This time she wouldn’t cheat the reaper, the looming death filled her with dread as she braced for the end. But it never came. Zack stood there frozen. There behind Elena…was Fia. She stood there, looking disturbed at the scene laid out in front of her. The Turks were all injured and laid out, possibly dying. And there stood Zack, his hair lengthened to his lower back, his eyes, a sickly greenish glow, a spectral onyx blade in his left hand and wild manic look in his eye. 

“Fia?” he called out to her, fear rising now within him. “Fia?!”

“Get away from me!” she recoiled, disgust on her face. It broke him. He couldn’t hear the rest of her words, but he felt them. In the core of his being he felt them.

“They were my family! How could you do this, you monster?!”

And with those words, the world fell away. 

Chapter Text

A willow tree stood looming over the edge of a cliff face. From its vantage point, the rippling lake water sat many many meters below. Its brown craggy hue had grayed from the steel cloud, unsettled by the torrential downpour. Through the years, the willow had weathered many disasters. Winds, monsters, erosion, parasites, and even a god shifting the structure of the land around it. And now, underneath this tree, a girl was crying to herself amidst her own demons. She could do naught but cry. She cried and cried knowing nothing could come of yet nothing could halt them. It was hopeless, she’d done so much to make things right. Yet her best laid plans fell through like the rain around her. Was the world so cruel as to punish her further? A presence in front of her stirred her from her misery, a man was standing before her. She was wrong, there was one thing that could dry her tears or at least dam them up a bit. 

“I thought it’d be you.” she said. “It had to be. You’re him.” The girl hung her head low. “You know what I am, right? You’ve had a hunch, at least. I am Cetra. And Aerith is my half sister… biologically.” Her words began to falter, reliving the details of those harmless scribbles that broke her. “That man…” she spat, then centered herself. “I am subject 039 of the Cetra Revival project.” She fully slumped into herself. “They used the DNA of a woman who died over 30 years ago for the chance at wiping clean one man’s guilty conscience. The others… failed, for one reason or another. But then, I was born. Sophia Ifalna… Shinra, the only living subject.” She looked up at the man before her and gave a half hearted smile. “I am Shinra’s legacy. The end product of all their sins. But you’d know all about that. You’re used to cleaning up after Shinra, aren’t you Mr Cloud?”

Cloud stood above Fia, one of Tyrfing’s fangs in his hands, the full blade on his back. He listened but spoke not, letting her release. If the tragedy of the story affected him, he gave no sign of it, only looking down at Fia with pained neutrality. She continued.

“I know I remind you of her.” she lamented, twirling her golden locks. “Not in every way, but definitely in others. She was beautiful—I’ve finally got to see her. Well, I did see her before, during that get together—” she started to ramble but caught herself. “It doesn’t matter. None of that matters. I’m a copy. I shouldn’t…” she quivered and sniveled, "I shouldn’t even exist. Another Shinra mistake.” The dam broke again and her tears flowed as the rain around them. “But you’re…you’re Cloud Strife. You fix Shinra mistakes, right?” She looked up at him, a desperate, manic and terrified face. Her breaths grew faster and heavy, she struggled against the weight of her words as if she was carrying the weight of the world on her tongue.

“Would you…kill me?”

“No.” Cloud replied immediately, returning the sword to its base. Fia hung her head back down, a small sad smile on her face.

“I should’ve known.” she muttered. “You’re not just Cloud Strife, you’re Zack’s dad too. He had to get it from somewhere. The noble hero bit.” Fia stood up from her rooted seat, turning to face the cliff edge. She stared down at the churning swamp water below, as rain pelted her from above, mustering what she thought had to be courage. 

“It’s a long fall.” Cloud called out to her, his words feeling like an anchor keeping her on this side. “Listen, I’m not…” he paused, mulling his next words carefully, “I’m not the best with words—with feelings. But I know…” he faltered, the words a mush in his mind. “It’s hard. Getting out of the place you’re in is hard. I’ve been there. I lived a lie for almost a year. When it came out I…” He held himself, entering that place for the first time in nearly two decades, and remembering who was there. Remembering Tifa. “…had someone. Someone who I cherished, and who I still cherish. And through them—through living, I saw so many things to cherish as well.”

“But how can you say that to someone who shouldn’t be.” she argued, looking desperate for some justification. “A Shinra made copy! Someone who’d just end up reminding you of—”

“I’m reminded of her everyday.” he interrupted, a bitter sweet look on his face. “I see her on the street corner handing out flowers. I see her in church, I… I see her as a flash zooming by on my bike, I see her… when I’m walking down the street, she passes me and I have to stop myself from reaching out to her—knowing it’s not her. She was my friend and she was taken from me. Not just me. I know my wife, my best friend; all of Avalanche feel the same way I do. We all miss her. We all still see her. Look, how you came to be doesn’t matter. Who you look like doesn’t matter. The fact that you’re here… is a gift. So if you have one—just one person you cherish, then i think you should live. So you can share that gift with them.”

Her resolve further faltered at his speech. She thought of her father Rufus, she thought of the Turks and all the memories they shared. No, they were tainted. They kept what she was a secret, they let her fall. They made her this thing. Out in the distance, there was some sort of explosion at the edge of the forest. It didn’t boom, it wasn't bright, but it apparated, sending of black arcs like inky black solar flares. The two focused their eyes on it, Cloud succumbing to a migraine at the sight of it. It was fast, it left him hazy, and it was all too familiar. The same pain he felt during Meteorfall, the same pain he felt when he had Geostigma. Sephiroth. He prepared for this. The day he might have to confront That Man in his son’s body. Even still, the very thought of truly drawing steel against his son was so terrible, he felt the world be better damned than force him to do it. He sensed it before he saw it. A spectral slash shot forth from the object. It sheared the canopy of the swamp forest and sliced through the under edge of the cliff side as it came for Cloud. Only just managing to block the slash with Tyrfing, the energy knocked him back and clear off his feet. Grave dread hit him when he hit the ground. The girl was still on the ledge as it gave. Fia felt her stomach drop as the cliffside fell away, sending her into a free fall. Cloud ran, desperately trying to grab hold of her. He missed her by her fingertips. And as she fell, only one word escaped her lips. One final desperate call for help, amidst the inevitable.

“Zack…”

The void again, empty and cold, just like in his dreams. But this time, he welcomed the dark, the cold. Anything was better than being him right now. Head down, making himself as small as possible, as if to hide himself even further. She saw him for what he was. He’d let her in so easily, and this was the result. Of what purpose was giving himself to her? It was as she said, “Monster”. Undeserving of love. 

“You fooled yourself for far too long.” a voice called from the void. Zack looked up to see himself standing before him, or so he thought. A him in black. The him that was there exuded an aura of unimaginable power preceded him. As if he had his own gravity, a power over the very void itself. “Though I was fooled longer than even you.”

“Who are you?” Zack attempted yet only succeeded in a small whisper. The being gave a small, insidious laugh.

“You know who I am.” he said, with haunting glee. “I am you’re—” His words were drowned out by a sudden searing headache that came from nowhere and left just as quickly. The figure chuckled a nasty, wretched laugh, “Didn’t like that, hmm? Let’s just say I’m you. The you that has lingered in the back of your mind. At the recesses of your soul, crawling, screaming, demanding to be set free. The truth, dammed behind the walls of your self confinement, and damned to be forgotten in time.” He smirked. “Until now.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Zack hung his head low again, clearly disappointing himself.

“Driven to tears by an insect.”

“What?” Zack snarled, his anger piqued. That man laughed.

“Lowering yourself to one beneath you. I made that mistake once. Before I knew who I really was. A girl such as this is easily—”

“Don’t you dare!” Zack shot up, eye to eye with the him that was there. 

“You defend those who believe you a monster. This vulnerability is weakness.” The void shifted into memories, like in his dreams. But this time it was his memories but something was wrong. Each face she made had this glint of malice that wasn’t there before. Or was it always there, Zack looked desperately through his mind to see the original memories but couldn’t see anything but that look on her face. Like she’d been toying with him, that belief that she could actually love him back was misguided—the delusion of a love starved idiot. Foolishness. He’d fought so hard for a love that didn’t exist. “They are pitiful creatures. This planet is yours by birthright.” The vision changed to beneath the earth, the lifestream shifted from its vibrant green to a toxic miasmic purple, so too did Gaia become enveloped in a toxic cloud layer. That which was the planet was remade violently in his 
image and all that came before was no more. “Take it.” 

“Stop…” Zack begged

“You still resist.” 

The void shifted again to what he last saw: Fia, calling him  ‘Monster’, played over and over again. And then it was everyone in his life. Marlene, Denzel, Barret, Yuffie, Reeve, Elmyra, his mother Tifa and his father Cloud, all repeating the same thing. Forcing him to confront the fear he’d run from his whole life on repeat until any other option felt better. Zack fought hard against the innumerable, it continued for days, for weeks on end, he tried to deny what was truly before him. And yet, even he was not strong enough. His life was suffering. An endless cycle of being persecuted or fearing persecution or not knowing the difference. None would love him. None could. The weight of this truth crushed him underfoot. The will in his heart ebbed until there was naught left but embers.

“…Enough.” he whimpered. That man gave a triumphant chuckle. He reached out his hand, a faustian gesture.

“I can relieve you of this burden—this pitiful cage. All you need do is take my hand.”

Zack peered over to that man’s hand. It looked inviting. It looked kind. Compared to the torment he’d endured—that he’d been enduring, relinquishing the burden felt peaceful. He reached out his hand, peace was in reach. But he heard something. It was faint, almost imperceptible, but it was there. It was Fia.

“Zack…” 

She was in danger, and  he could think of nothing else. Despite his pain, despite her fear of him. He was called. He must answer.

“How disappointing.” that man said, but his words faded into nothing as Zack regained his senses. Flying on pure instinct, he flew towards his calling; on the opposite edge of the forest, through the swamplands, his eyes focusing on the falling Fia. In a split second, he was at her side. She was in his arms, gasping at the suddenness of it all. He held her with firmness, just as he did the first time they met—the first time she fell. 

“You heard me?!” she gasped. “How?!”

“Because,” Zack replied simply, “I’m your guardian angel.” It took her a beat to recognize those words. But then her thoughts fell on Zack. The day they met. The times they spent studying. Them running from the Turks. Her memories were a flash of their times together. The joy she felt, the pure untainted joy. Tears sprung up even though she thought the well was long dry. There wasn’t so much a dam anymore, the levies had fully broken, the deluge flowed through freely. She held close to his firm chest, shamelessly crying into it. He didn’t seem to mind, though. And the rain had stopped. They floated to the edge of the lake, a single step on the surface of the water sent a ripple through the lake. Once they landed, she got a real look at him, through her watery eyes. He looked different, no, he was different. It wasn’t just his lengthened hair, the wing that was now fully blackened, nor that look in his eyes. There was something deeper that had changed within. Cloud was waiting at their landing spot. He had an unreadable expression on his face but Zack seemed to pay it no mind. As the couple landed, Zack let Fia down from his arms so she might stand on her own power. The two stared deeply into each other’s eyes for a time, as if speaking to one another without a single word. Cloud stepped forward, breaking the tension between the two, their focus landing on him. A green flash, he grabs his head in pain. It’s him. He knows it’s him before he even levels his gaze. That old wound that hobbles him, keeps him felled with pain, wracked with remembrance.

“So nearly free.”

Zack fell backwards into the swamp. Fia scrambled frantically trying to wrestle his big body to shore. Cloud was slow to act, still reeling from his migraine. 

“Mr. Cloud?!” she cried back in horror at the thought of both of them being out of commission. He pushed himself up by the last of his strength, staggering over to a Fia just barely keeping Zack’s head above water. With both of them combined, they're just barely able to pull Zack from the lake and get him loaded onto the bike. Sandwiched between his dad and Fia, they finally began their trek home.

Beyond the edge, the Turks laid broken in their encounter, the area around them scarred by both battle and whatever happened after Zack hit Elena. She was the only one conscious after the slaughter. He wasn’t like the triplets. They were sadistic, psychotic. He was wrathful, but something more. There was sorrow there, too. It was in his eyes when he gave her that ultimatum. Like in some twisted way, he really was just a boy lashing out. She picked herself up off the ground, inspecting herself for wounds. Besides her gun being cut in half, there were no injuries, despite the force of the slash knocking her on her ass. She checked on Rude first. His arm looked really bad, and he was banged up but nothing fatal. Then came Reno, and to her shock, he wasn’t too worse for wear either, despite the sword stabbing and manhandling. He wasn’t even bleeding too bad. 

“How the hell—” Something was coming from the forest. A bike. Had to be. She ran to take Reno’s baton, getting into a defensive position. On edge, and having just survived what she thought was a fatal encounter, she wasn’t taking any chances. The lights came through first, she held down the line til she could see who it was, bracing for the worst. Cloud, Fia and the now unconscious Zack rolled through the path out, slowing to a stop when they reached the Turk trio. Elena had her hackles up and she bristled seeing Zack again, unconscious or not. 

“Elena!” Fia called over.

“I see you’re doing pretty well.” Elena spat back. Fia’s eyes fell, Elena relented. “What the hell were you thinking?!”

“I wasn’t.” 

“Yeah, no shit!” Elena scoffed, finally putting up her baton. “So what’s the deal…” Making no motion or hint, but it was obvious what she was referring to. 

“Gettin him back home.” Cloud said, simply.

“That’s it? No plan for anything, just, we’ll see what happens?”

“Looks that way, yeah.”

“You’re gonna get us all killed.” She started loading the Turk twosome into the car. “Whatever happens from this point on, is none of my business.” Once both Turks were loaded in, she started the car. “I’m only not keeping my panic attack down by focusing on you, so… I’m gonna go.”

“Am I not going with you?” An innocent question. Elena just smiled. 

“This was a drop off mission. We dropped you off. Now you’re in his capable hands.” She shut the door and drove off, leaving Fia unsure how she was supposed to feel. The sun was setting behind the horizon by the time they returned to Kalm. A much slower return on account of their carefulness. They reach the gate, the guard eyes the trio with suspicion before realizing they were injured. 

“You lot get attacked by fiends?” she asked, shouldering Zack on his shoulder.

“Something like that.” Cloud grunted as he peeled himself off the bike, assisted by Fia. 

“Orcs are trouble, man. Don’t let them fool you into thinking they’re easy to take down.”

Nothing in the world could let this guy in on the world Cloud had been through so he just nodded and agreed. The crowds had died down in the streets, but the inclines were everywhere and nonnegotiable. They made their way to Broden’s Inn, the struggle clearly taking its toll on the poor gate guardsman. When they reached the inn, it was awfully quiet. The gate guard basically tapped out, letting the girl and the injured man carry the unconscious big body through the door. Cloud remembered the little secret plan he’d made with Tifa before. Horrific reality hit him like a truck, stopping him from just pulling the damn door open. Here he was, bringing their son back hurt; hurt in a way they’d had hard talks and nightmares about. He’d failed her again. The one thing he feared in this world and he’d done it in spectacular fashion. But nothing would get solved by dilly dallying. He shook his head, steeled his nerve and pushed through the front door. Tifa was there, holding a slice of Zack’s favorite dessert; a cheesecake, like they’d planned. The plate shattered on the ground, and Tifa had Zack in arms in short order. The look of panic on her face was only equaled by her stalwart resolve.

“Oh my god?! Cloud, what happened?!” she sputtered while lifting up Zack so she could take some of the weight. Cloud clattered to the floor, forcing Tifa to rethink her decision. Not for too long, the man Gabriel came to the rescue. 

“I got him.” he reassured her, “Titan almighty, what is going on?!” He pulled Cloud up by his arm. Tifa started to readjust Zack so he’d be completely on her shoulders, but she realized she had a partner on Zack’s other side.

“Fia?”

“I’m here.” she said, holding up on her end.

Tifa threw her confusion to the wayside. The group made their way up the stairs of the inn, as discreet as three people could be when dragging two others on their backs up two flights of stairs. Fair to say, they got a few looks, but pressed on regardless. Once they reached Zack’s suite, the two Strife men were laid out on the king size. The climb had left Gabriel, Cloud and Fia out of breath, but Tifa was like a machine: laying the boys out properly and putting Cloud on his stomach so she could get to his back. It looked like he got hit by a car, the whole of his back was a hideous purple mess. Tifa oiled the chakra into her hands as she’d done countless times before, but never had it been so dire. 

“Who—what did this to you?! Cloud!” her words a frantic flurry of questions she knew she’d get no answers to. 

“I-I-I-I‘ll see about getting youse a doctor.” he said in a mild panic.

“Hold on! I have to think this through!” she ordered the man Gabriel which has him in hysterics.

“I beg your pardon, miss, but what could there be to think through?!”

She placed her hand down on his back and instantly bristled, stifling a pained wail and breathing heavily. He was a wreck. Tifa weighed her options: 
wait for a doctor to come and possibly misdiagnose her husband, try to fix it herself with chakra and possibly make it worse, or gamble on a healing materia being left at the market, and not being saturated enough to be of any help. A green light emanated behind her before she could make a choice. She whipped around, to the shock of all present Fia was glowing, emanating an emerald aura that washed over everyone. It was warm, and familiar, the words that came from her as she glowed. Imparsable, yet comforting. Cloud’s back began to change from purple to a near black, then a deep red and finally its natural pigment. She stopped moments after, leaving the two in awe.

“Well I’ll be.” Gabriel gawked, scratching the back of his head in disbelief. 

“Thank you so much for your help.” she said, taking his hand and bowing graciously. “And Avalanche appreciates your discretion most.” Gabriel seemed to get the message, nodding in agreement before taking his leave.

“Evening, miss.”

And with that, it was just Tifa, Cloud, Fia and an unconscious Zack. The two women let out a collective sigh of relief as the worst was over, Fia even slumped to her knees. Tifa went over and kneeled next to Fia, she got a good look at her. It’d been ages since they last saw one another and no matter how many times she’d thought of her, she never realized what was right in front of her. Call it a mental block or maybe seeing what she wanted to see, but right now, it was like she was 20 again in this hotel, confiding in her friend. She wrapped her arms around Fia, pulling her in for a hug, one a mix of gratitude and a hug one gives a friend they haven’t seen in a long time. 

“Thank you, Fia.” she said, holding her tight. Fia returned the gesture on instinct, the feeling of warmth filling her body—a warmth she’d never realized she needed until now. She clung to Tifa until her exhaustion caught up to her. When Tifa broke, she could see her barely holding on to consciousness. 

“Rest up.” Tifa said, soothing the girl’s hang ups though she still put up a meager resistance.

“N~no I can…can.” Father sleep remains undefeated. Tifa stood up, eyeing her husband sitting up on his side of the bed.

“Oh no you don’t!” she advanced on him like a prowling tiger intent on getting him lying down again.

“Tifa~.” he complained as she pushed him back to the mattress. 

“You need rest, too.” she said sternly.

“I’ve done enough resting for a lifetime.”

“Oh I’ll bet.” punctuated with a light smack to his back. To her surprise, it wasn’t tender like it had been of late. It was firm and strong as it’d been nearly 2 decades ago. She almost gasped at the difference.

“See that didn’t even hurt.” he remarked while rising up; getting in a good stretch as he was young again. “Besides…she needs the space right?” He pointed to the now completely unconscious, lightly snoring Fia huddled by the bedside. A wave of embarrassment hit Tifa like a blast of hot air. Once they got her in bed, it dawned on them that they might fare better under the covers than just out in the open. By the time they’d finished, the two were wrapped up snug and Tifa was stroking her son’s head. Cloud was right there too, looking down at him , the similarities were evident before, but now they were unignorable. 

“It got a lot worse real fast.” Tifa remarked. Cloud said nothing. She raised her eyes to look at her other half, telling instantly the shame he felt. It was second nature once they got the ball rolling. A mind meld will do wonders for communication. No matter the stoic face he put on, she could see right through him. And no matter the brave kind face she donned, he could tell when she was overwhelmed. They even opened their mouths to speak at the same time. Cloud took the initiative.

“Let's move over here.” Cloud motioned for them to take a seat at the coffee table. They were next to each other on the couch, Tifa had her hand in his.

“Tell me everything.” She urged.

“Where to begin?”

Chapter Text

“From the beginning.” she encouraged, putting her hand in his. “Let's go from start to finish.” Cloud nodded and took a breath.

“We went on the job. You probably already knew that it was a Shinra gig.” She nodded. “The Midgardsormr reappeared. We were gonna take it out, head over to the compound, and we’d miraculously ‘find’ Fia. Then… she attacked me.” 

“She attacked you?” she gasped, looking back at the sleeping girl. “When you got to the compound?” 

“In the marshland. She followed us. I managed to stop her before she could do any real damage.”

“I feel like you're glossing over the ‘trying to kill you’ part of this.” she insisted.

“Tifa, she…” he paused, mustering his courage. The eyes he showed betrayed the posture he always kept. That dorky optimism backed by a bluntness that let you know what he said was exactly what he felt. Such sorrowful eyes he had now. “...she wanted me to kill her, Tifa.” She was too stunned to speak, like getting hit with an eighteen wheeler. Didn’t know what was gonna come out his mouth, but who would expect that?

“Oh my god.” was all she could say, gripping the under carriage hard, the wood now creaking in her grasp. Cloud gave the hand she gave him a tender squeeze. Tifa returned it, her conviction returning. The weight would be shared.

“She wore a mask,” Cloud continued “and slung high level spells like nothing I’d ever seen. Said she was ‘Shinra’s legacy’, the helmet masking her voice and everything.” Tifa took a minute to process what she was being told. Seeing them come home in a heap was already a lot but each detail felt like another hundred pounds of straw on the camel. 

“Okay…” she finally said after finding her center. “Did she tell you why?”

He breathed deep. The fact that he needed to prepare himself further was frightening in and of itself. Tifa braced herself for what she thought the worst to be.

“Rufus, he…” he said after some time but stopped as soon as he started. Tifa waited with bated breath, gripping the wooden underside of the couch only did so much. Cloud peered over to the sleeping girl and leaned in to whisper. “Tifa, she’s… a Cetra.” Her jaw dropped. She whirled her head around looking at Fia, then back at Cloud.

“Cetra?! Like Aerith?” she whispered back. “I thought she was the last. There were more?!”

“Yes. Like Aerith. And no, she was the last. They did this experiment with stored DNA. She said that she’s Aerith's sister. So, her mother’s DNA. ” It was like the worst joke ever told and it kept getting worse and worse. The anti joke, and the punch line is how fucked up the world could be on repeat. The grip Tifa had on the couch was starting to bore holes and cracks in the wood.

“Okay…” she shook her head. “Okay, okay, okay. This is… a lot more than I thought, even with you collapsing at the entrance of the inn.” She shuddered, putting her head in her hands and groaning. “Oh god, now I see it.” she froze, covering her face. “I never saw it before. She… she looks—”

“Just like her with blonde hair,” he interjected. “I know. I had a feeling when we first met but I just wasn’t sure. Then she had that flower and…” Tifa put up her hands.

“We’re getting off track, what happened next?” She guided the conversation back to the matter. Cloud exhaled and got back on the thorn laden track. 

“She thought I could ‘right’ another Shinra ‘wrong’by doing this. But she froze Zack in Time magic; didn’t want him to see… the aftermath. But he got free. Tried to talk to her, but she warped away. I told him we had to go after her.” Cloud scoffed, seemingly at himself. “I pushed him—I pushed him to save her. But I was thinking of myself. I think I wanted to save her—to save Aerith this time. And when he sprouted that wing, despite everything I knew would come from it, I didn’t stop him.” Tifa’s heart was strangled by a noose of dread. 

“You aren’t wrong for wanting that.” she said, trying to counter the negativity brewing inside her husband.

“Is that right?”

“Yes! We’re only here because we chose love over hate. We chose to live without fear.” He didn’t respond. The pit in Tifa’s stomach grew, knowing that if she spoke the question it would become real; unavoidable.

“Did you see him?” she shivered, knowing she had to hear it, even if it hurt. Even if it meant the end of the world. “Did you see him in our son?” She’d drowned the fear this day would come with love for her son. Love for their family. When his hair turned white, she and Cloud promised they would do what was necessary. Their conviction waned until it was as strong as a wet napkin as the years passed. Now the thought of the “necessary” made her sick to her stomach. But she knew, she knew even before the word left his lips what the answer was. That look. The look of shame—of guilt. It hit its lowest point right when she asked that question.

“…Yes.”

The final straw—the underside of the couch exploded. Splinters of varnished oak wood spilled onto the ground in all directions. She stormed to the window, leaning on the windowsill, shaking. Her gaze was out the window but not on anything, feeling the weight of the emptiness that anchored the fear of tomorrow. And then her husband’s arms around her, a moth of warmth held in the empty pit, now a void. Her knuckles that were tensed white were allowed release as she held the arms around her. 

“Why?” she quivered. “Why us? Why always us?!” 

“I don’t know.” he said, unable to say anymore.

“It’s been eighteen years,” Fury trembled in her words “and he still finds a way to get us!” 

“If it comes to it, then I’ll…” Tifa held Cloud’s face, tenderly. She regarded him with a mournful grimace. 

“We were lying to ourselves back then. We never could have done it.”

She was absolutely right. That day when his hair turned white, he knew there was nothing they could do but lie. Lie to themselves and everyone else. It was all they could do to pretend nothing was amiss. They stood facing the window, both focusing on nothing, holding each other, together. They’d been in this inn when their journey began. A cruel irony it would be if this were their last ride; their sin damning the rest of humanity and Gaia itself. 

A knock came at the door. At this late hour, must’ve been the couch exploding. Tifa stepped quickly over to the door and she found the second to last thing she wanted to see: Rufus Shinra, standing on the other side of their door. She slammed it closed almost immediately, hesitancy about noise level had gone out the window. Cloud sighed and came over, not wanting this anymore than she did but supporting her nonetheless.

“If he knocks one more time I’m putting his head through the wall.”

A thankful Rufus lowered his hand from the center of the door and waited patiently. The door opened again, both of them now side by side, eyeing Rufus with absolute disgust. 

“What’re you doing here?” Cloud said, cold as sword steel.

“Checking in. It’s natural for a father to worry, no?” he said with his signature smug act, and a flash of light shot across his vision. A stinging pain and sudden wet drip revealed a cut opened up just under his cheek bone. Only then did he see the fist, millimeters from his cheek. Tseng had his hand on Tifa’s wrist but it was a gesture more than anything. Had she wanted it, the Turks' hand would’ve been where the President’s head was, and they knew that. 

“You’re gonna have to mind how you speak if you don’t want to meet your father.” she growled, a more crazed expression had never crossed her face before. Tseng released his grip and she retracted her fist, slowly, glaring up at Rufus the whole time.

“Noted.” he said, only just succeeding to maintain his calm composure. Tseng handed him a soft cloth to pad the bleeding, the smell of iron in the air only spurred Tifa’s wrath. How dare he bleed like us.
 
“I should send you off anyway! What you did to that girl—”

“By not telling her the truth?” he bit back. “It seems we have that in common.” Tifa wanted to retaliate, but the comeback staggered her. 

“By the state I found her in,” Cloud took the reins “no, I don’t think we have that in common.”

“I worry as anyone would,” Rufus argued “especially now. Two of my Turks are out of commission.”

“Noted. )

“I was thinking about that.” Cloud chimed in. “I was thinkin’, ‘Man…what did they do to make him that mad?’” 

“You believe they instigated?” 

“I’m saying Reno doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.” Rufus did his best to avoid the truth in that statement. 

“And what of the boy?” he deflected.

“And what of him?” Tifa shot back, her eyes maintaining a “Tread lightly” glint.

“What are your next steps?” 

“We’ll deal with it!” Tifa stated firmly.

“Deal with it?” Rufus questioned. Tifa just wanted to punch him again, but Cloud stepped in.

“That a problem?”

“Not at all.” he answered, giving a bow that still hung his head high. “I shall take my leave.”

“Sir?” Tseng called in a seeming protest. Rufus turned back, signature shield of arrogance on his face.

“Just like that?!” Tifa called out as he was going. Rufus turned back, a scorn filled gaze shot back at her. “She really is just an experiment to you!” She spat, arms crossed, her words were stained with venom. 

“Do not dare!” Rufus seethed, turning to face her. "You think I do not love, because I keep my distance?! I love her enough to keep my distance!" An uncharacteristic emotional breakdown but it was short lived.

“Is that really love?” Tifa challenged. 

But he didn't respond, simply stepping down the stairs and passed a bleary eyed Gabriel coming to see what all the ruckus was about, thankful he didn’t have to break up a fight. 

“Forgive him.” Tseng asked. “He is confused.” 

“You always make excuses for your bosses.” Tifa chided. 

“Maybe so, but change is possible. No matter how painful it may be.” He followed the president shortly after. And with that, the two gave Gabriel the okay, and they closed the door to the suite, wires frayed from the emotional rollercoaster that was today. They looked into each other’s eyes, the words falling off the track from their minds to their mouths. Surrendering to their bed in the hopes of getting some sleep in the wake of the storm they’d endured. 

The morning sun rays shimmered through the suite window, a strong beam hitting directly onto the unconscious sleeping angel. The annoyance is enough to rouse him, tired eyes cracked to see her—to see Fia next to him. He fell out of bed with a thud. A groggy Fia peered over at him through squinted eyes. 

“Fia?!” he gasped. The girl sat up in bed, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She gave him a smile.

“Hey, big guy.” she rasped, “Love the glam rock hair.” 
She yawned and when she opened her eyes, Zack was hunched on to the bed, his hand outstretched. It was as if he’d wanted to grab her, to hold her desperately. Instead, he pulled his hand away.

“W-what are you doing here?!” he blurted out, his hand now behind his back as if he wanted to restrain his desire. Fia scooched across the bed to be closer to him. His reluctance was odd to her, like he hadn’t held her in his arms half a day ago; like he was back to square one.

“I mean…it’s good to see you.” he said, avoiding her gaze. A small chuff escaped her nose, as she looked demurely away, then back at him. She couldn’t get over how cute he was, but it worried her the sadness in his eyes. Her eyes fell again; he must’ve thought the worst of her for what she’d done.

“I’m sorry about… yesterday.” she said softly. He furrowed his brow.

“No, no, I—” he lowered himself as if to beg, then paused, his brow furrowed. “Yesterday?” She looked up at him, seeing the confusion on his face filled her with confusion. “I didn’t see you yesterday.”

“What?” 

“Yeah. I was still in Edge, yesterday! I looked everywhere for you! I even—”

“Searched the upper plate for me?” she finished. “Yeah, you told me yesterday. Do you seriously not remember?!” The words hit him like a ton of bricks. He knew what was real, at least, he thought he did. All he could recall was: searching Edge, sleeping restlessly, that dream, rolling into Kalm and then…
A splitting headache overtook him. Images in static, danced across his mind’s eye. Visions of the serpent, of Fia, of…himself. He would’ve fallen over, if not for Fia holding his face close, pulling him to lean on her. 

“What’s going on?! Zack, what’s wrong?!” She pleaded, panicking, not knowing what to do or how to help. Healing magic? Nothing was physically wrong, she didn’t think. 

“I’m fine.” he said, the pain subsiding. When he came to, he found his head on her chest. She held him close, stroking the back of his head to comfort him. The thumping—her heartbeat, it was slow to him. Only ever heard his own heart pounding in his head during an encounter, fast and strong. Hers was pleasant, soothing. 

“We met…yesterday?” 

“Yeah.” she said. “I was…in that disguise. Do you remember?”

“…Yeah.” He said after some time. “Yeah, yeah. It’s fuzzy, though. I remember getting here, then I see my dad and it’s… static. But you’re there. And I’m…” 

He didn't finish before a knocking came at their door. Reluctantly leaving her hold, he went for the knob. The faint aroma of food coming from downstairs was proof positive the day had passed—he hadn’t just taken a nap. His father was on the other side, leaning against the door frame.

“Hey.” he said.

“Hey.” Zack replied in kind, a third exchange in the Strife men greeting ritual.

“Hey.” Tifa came in from the side, an added element to the affair.

“Hey.” Fia called over, having walked from the bed to the door. Truly, this phenomenon would require rigorous study and classification.

“We’re so great at talking.” Zack joked before puffing his newfound bangs out of his face. “My hair’s getting long again. Guess it was… yesterday.” Tifa and Cloud exchanged a glance at one another.

“We can get you a haircut after we eat.” Then he turned and left, simple as. Tifa gave a soft smile before following. 

The sight downstairs was something out of a fairy tale. A buffet of almost every breakfast food one could imagine. A mahogany table held a bountiful plenty: golden mountain of soft scrambled eggs; thick slabs of bacon, sausage links and patties; hashbrowns, and home fries cooked with onions and peppers; an assorted fruit bowl; and a giant loaf of bread, cut moderately, not too thick and not too thin. Next to the buffet table was the open kitchen, a wide stout woman working a griddle making special orders and; omelettes, and pancakes could be seen getting cooked up as the group drifted downstairs. Judging by the long line in the dining hall, it wasn’t just guests partaking in the inn’s buffet. They took a seat at a table close to the stairway, nearly isolated in the corner of the dining hall. Zack didn’t so much as sit down before he went to get a plate. 

“I can get you a plate, you want anything?” Zack asked.

“Oh, well I can just—” she went to get up but Tifa took her hand.

“Oh please, it’s our treat.” she said, it was clear to Fia that they had something they had to discuss. She nodded. 

“Uh, just…whatever.” she acquiesced.

“Why don’t you get our plates, too.” Cloud proposed. Zack furrowed his brow. “I had to carry you back yesterday, and your mother doesn’t want me standing for too long anymore.” Zack rolled his eyes but did as he was told. Once he left, the two parents turned their attention to Fia, looking deadly serious. Made her anxious. She knew of them and got to know them, but she didn’t truly know them.

“We wanted to officially invite you.” Tifa spoke up, breaking the tension. “We’re taking a trip to our hometown, and we sorta schemed to get you two together.”

“To Nibelheim, right?” she asked.

“That’s right~! You’ve done your homework.”

“Zack told me.” she admitted. 

“He did, did he?” Tifa raised an eyebrow. “And was that all he told you?”

“He told me about you guys. He told me how…” she looked at Cloud, regret in her eyes. “…how we—Shinra took you and… and then, yesterday happened…” she began to ramble, breaking eye contact. Tifa gave her a hand tender squeeze.

“You have nothing to be ashamed of.”  The warmth of the act spurred in her feelings of comfort, yet they were snuffed out in the void of her guilt.

“I could’ve killed you!” she argued, looking at Cloud, protesting against their kindness.

“Could you now?” Cloud challenged.

“Cloud!” 

“I’m just trying to tell her I would’ve been fine.” Cloud said, maintaining a nonchalant air about him, that ebbs and fades away as he realized his wife was staring daggers at him. “What?!”

“That wasn’t a challenge!” 

“I know… but if it was—” he leaned into the table. 

Fia’s mouth began to quiver, the bucking in her abdomen heralded the arrival of a soft giggle. 

“You’re trying so hard to be cool.” she managed through her giggling.

“I am cool.” he insisted. Then the levy broke; Fia laughed insatiably. Deep belly laughter that hunched her over, putting her face into the wooden table. Tifa, confused, glanced at Cloud who gave her a knowing look. Tifa nodded, realizing the game he was playing. Once Fia calmed down, she looked at the two of them. They’d been like family to her, ever since she started coming over. She saw it as simple politeness before, but realized she felt welcome whenever she came by. Even if Zack wasn’t there, they always checked in on her, but didn’t pry. They were invested, but not controlling. Like an actual family. 

“So you’re saying that I,” she pointed to herself, “can go with you,” she pointed at them. “across the ocean, to a continent I’ve never seen before?”

“Only if you’re fine being on a cruise ship.”

“Ye—” she squeaked a bit too loud, planting a hand on her mouth to stifle it. No one else in the hall seemed to care, but she looked over at Zack, still in line. Tifa spotted it instantly. 

“He wants you there too.”

“...I know but.”

“But?”

“I’m not who I said I was. Or who I thought I was. I might not even know who I am right now and it…” she bit her lip, enraged. “It all goes back to Shinra.”

“Being made to believe something by those you love…” She glanced over at Zack in line, looking back at Fia with a forlorn grimace before forcing another smile that fades just as quickly. “We’re the same.”

“You’re wrong!” she piped up, impassioned. “You’re not Shinra! You care about him! You did it to protect h—!”

“We did it for us.” Tifa dropped the bomb on Fia, goosebumps broke out on the girl’s skin. “We didn’t want to give…that man anymore than he’d already taken from us. When he changed, we—” she struggled to get the words out.

“Asked for a favor.” Cloud cut in, taking some of the weight off of Tifa. “Ever see him in a history book, or an image on the net?” Fia searched her brain for images of Sephiroth, a shocking realization that the only images of him she’d even seen were in old Shinra archives. “Nobody knows Sephiroth was the cause of Meteorfall, nobody knows he caused Geostigma, and nobody has seen an image of him in years because we tried to make the world forget about him. And we succeeded.”

Fia attempted a rebuttal that fizzled on her tongue. Her anger, her hatred, her self loathing, it should’ve been so easy to pinpoint. Shinra’s bad, Avalanche was good, but they lied just like Shinra lied. Where could her anger go? What side should she choose?
And that’s when Zack came back, impeccable timing as always. Balancing four plates like a pro, cause he was one.

“Okay, I got blueberry pancakes, bacon and sunny side up eggs for you;” he handed a plate to Fia, “french toast, sausage patties and eggs for mom;” to his mom “sausage links, home fries and eggs for dad;” to his dad “and a goat cheese omelette and bacon for me.” Sitting next to Fia, he noticed the leftover tension from conversations past. “Did I miss something?”

Chapter Text

The Sun hung high in the sky by the time the family was ready to ship off, having broken the news that Fia had decided to join them on their vacation. The internal fight to keep himself cool was won, but not unnoticed. Once the breakfast rush had subsided, the crew got their luggage from their rooms and went to check out. Gabriel regarded the parents. Fia was catching Zack up on what went down yesterday, out of ear shot. 

“Now you’re absolutely sure you don’t need another night?” Gabriel asked, almost begging. Tifa just smiled.

“Yeah, we have to hit the road. We’ve got a boat to catch.”

“Well, then I’ll not keep you.” he relented, disappointed but understanding. He put the room keys back, settling the stay in the log book. 

“One more thing…” Tifa leaned in to whisper. “We had an accident in the room and take full responsibility. You can charge our card.”

“Oh no, we can see to that, no problem at all.”

“I broke the couch.”

“Y-you what?” Gabriel remembered buying the couch and being spun some tale about it being made from guardian trees and how it was virtually indestructible. Even took a power saw to it at one point to no effect. 

“We’re very sorry.” The man Gabriel stared at her wide eyed, Tifa realized a bit too late he might be thinking she broke it some other way.

“Well, even so, I think it’d be up to our determination how bad the damage is.”

“…Oh.” Tifa relented. “Well you have the card.”

“I’ll see to everything, ma’am. Anything for Avalanche.” he nodded.

They bid the man a fond farewell, went to a barber to get Zack’s locks trimmed back from his mid back to his neck, and set out to the front vehicle lot to continue their journey. It was evident when they arrived that there was only one bike where they’d left it. Zack gave an odd look to the lone Fenrir in the lot.

“Yesterday, remember?” Cloud said. It wasn’t sarcastic. Did he know something happened? Of course, he did. Zack didn’t want to think about it. Or maybe he really just didn’t want to know. 

“Yeah.” he went along, “But then how are we gonna get to Junon? Stack four long on Fenrir and hope we make it down the Junon pass?” 

“In the interest of not endangering our guest, we’ll call in another favor.” Cloud sighed. “But we’re gonna have to all fit on Fenrir ‘til we get there.” He looked at his son with all the paternal authority he had. “That means we go slow, got it?”

“I got it.” Zack moaned as he took the driver seat. “I’ll go nice and slow for your old ass.” he mumbled under Fenrir’s roaring engine. The group all piled on to Fenrir one by one, first Fia, then Tifa, then Cloud on the back edge of the seat with all their luggage. They rode across the grasslands, minding their corners and keeping the speed under sixty. Even that was a stretch. Whenever they made a turn he slowed way down. Fiends weren’t too much trouble, still too fast for most of them. The ones that stood in the way got cut down. Cloud sent Tyrfing flying like a boomerang, reaping a deadly arc and returning the pitiful creatures to the planet. 

On the path they’d taken the day prior, they made a turn into a sizable ranch property; a cheesy plywood sign hung above the entrance: Chocobo Bill’s Chocobo Ranch & Gift Shop (The “& Gift shop” part is tacked on by an extra piece of wood). A thin crowd of guests gathered around the enclosures to look in on a grazing field of golden plumed chocobo. They pulled into a spot out the way, and in sequence removed themselves from the bike. Behind the zoo stood a broad barn, stables lined the walls going in, some empty, some with other chocobo in them. At the back sat a man rocking back and forth in a rocking chair, cowboy hat covering his eyes with an old tv on and his feet kicked up on the table he sat at. Behind him was a shelf lined with a variety of different figurines of race chocobo. One such racer was held above all the rest, The Golden Glider, even named in a bigger font. Cloud knew the ‘bo well, he was the one who bred her, after all. The creaking of the rocking chair and the audio, identifiably race audio, from the boob tube carried all the way over to the barn door so he clearly didn’t care about the noise. Cloud cleared his throat, which didn’t even startle the man; he just lifted his hat with one hand as if he was about to shew the group away. Then he saw who was in front of him and his whole demeanor changed, planting his feet firmly on the ground and rising from his seat.

“Well look what the cat dragged in, shook violently, swallowed and upchucked! How ya doin’ pops?” Cloud just stared at him like a dead fish that gained the ability to hate in death.

“There’s no way a thirty year old man is calling a forty year old man ‘pops’ like I’m in hospice care.”

Billy laughed, sauntered around the table, his boot spurs clinking as he went. He was taller than Cloud by a chin, and forced a vice grip on Cloud's hand. “I ain’t seen you in years! And you too!” he shook Tifa’s hand straight after, much more delicately. Then he set his sights on Fia and Zack. “Well, now, who are the youngins’?” 

“Zack.” he introduced himself without any fanfare.

“Fia, sir!” she said in gusto, reaching to shake the man’s hand even.

“Sir?” Billy recoiled at the honorific. 

“What a joke.” Cloud groaned, shaking his head. Fia shot him a wink.

“We need a chocobo,” Tifa walked up to Billy, getting them all back on track. “Could you loan us one? For old times sake?” Billy turned his head, flipped up his hat and whistled.

“Sorry, ma’am.” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “All our chocobo are on loan or racin’ right now. But you could certainly try for one out in the field.”

“Are you kidding me?” Cloud seethed, thinking about having to catch another chocobo. Billy turned back eyeing Cloud, his lips quivering. 

“He’s just joking.” called a voice from the Barn entrance with Chocobo Chloe, the source. She walked up, a mud stained jockey outfit and towel around her neck, wiping sweat from her brow as she walked in. Billy let out a deep belly laugh that Chloe cut short with a hard pull on his ear. He winced in pain, pulled off balance, dangling by his ear. “We keep a few on call just in case we get travelers that need to cross the bog. Aint’cha, Billy?!” 

“YEAH! YEAH! WE GOT SOME RESERVED FOR TRAVELERS! OW! BUT MOST PEOPLE DON’T RIDE NO MORE! OW! OOOOWW! SO WE USUALLY ONLY DO THOSE SPECIAL ORDERS! LEMME GO, SIS!” The pained admission seemed enough for Chloe to allow him his ear back.

“We’ve only got the one right now, sorry.” she said.

“That’s all we need.” assured Tifa. Chloe nodded.

“Let’s get the paperwork then and send you on your way.” She shot a look at her brother, but he was already wrangling a chocobo from the stables. Happy to see him taking this seriously, she brought Tifa over to the desk, pulling out a dusty folder with a stack of papers inside, and placed one in front of Tifa. “Just sign here—and initial here—and check mark there—print there a~nd sign at the bottom.” She guided Tifa through the paper with tight efficiency. “Oh and don’t worry about the fee.”

“Oh no I couldn’t!” Tifa rebutted. “We’re fully prepared to pay.”

“Absolutely not!” Chloe refused. “I insist, it's on the ranch!” A tennis match between pros had less back and forth than their contest of politeness that had Cloud really wishing his wife wasn’t so nice. Then, kicking himself for even having the thought. He glanced over at the kids as Billy took them to the rental chocobo named Daisy. Fia was hesitant to touch the bird, which shocked Zack more than anything.

“Are you…scared of Chocobo?” he eyed her with suspicion.

“No!” she denounced vehemently. “I’m just… I’ve never really ridden a real one before so—”

“You’ve never ridden a chocobo before?!” he grinned, cocky as hell.

“I have!” she objected, stomping her foot, “just… in a simulation.” her words quickly dying into a mere mumbling, avoiding eye contact. “Can’t be that hard.”

“Guess we’ll have to fix that.” He held the chocobo still for her to get on. Reaching out his hand, he grazed her fingers, seemingly intent on taking her hand. But he relented, turning over his hand for her to take instead. And she did just that, hopping as high as her legs could take her, a little boost from Zack getting her on the thing. Billy had done this thousands of times, maybe even a hundred thousand. And of those hundred thousand times he’d seen this maneuver about ten thousand: wooing by way of chocobo riding. And throughout all those times he’d seen it done successfully only one time. It was two men, too, so he gave up all hope when he saw this happening with a guy and gal. Still, he kept his nose out of it. No sense in spoiling the moment, however the outcome. Zack jumped up after her, grabbing the backmost length of the reins and placing the rope in Fia’s hands. She took them carefully, scared to spook the living, breathing animal in her grasp. Her grip was tight on the ropes, her nervousness evident. Zack had a hand on the bird's neck to keep its temperament in check.

“Just ease up on your grip, she’ll sense that you’re scared.”

“I am not scared!” she argued. Zack could feel the bird tense up. 
“Okay, but if you were scared you should know she’s not gonna hurt you.” he whispered tender words into her ear. “I’m right here.” With a breath, she calmed down; it was like magic. Billy was more shocked than Fia was. The kid seemed timid, but he had some game. Half of the other attemptees would be in the straw by now. 

“Okay, I got it from here.” she said, now confident but hesitant to look back just in case there was blush on her face. Zack loosened his grip, and Fia took over, driving the bird out of the stable and taking it for a walk around the stable grounds. She bade it to stop, her confidence now piqued. “Told you.” she bragged. “Just like the simulations.” She shot him a look oozing with superiority, but it folded instantly when she got a look at that smile. His warm, tender smile. 

“Yeah, you’re killin’ it.” An honest compliment was all he needed to ruffle her, darting her eyes forward, desperate to hide her blushing red face. Billy could only look on in awe. Daisy bucked, but it only took Zack pulling the reins for it to calm down. He rubbed the bird’s neck to help it calm down.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Billy gawked. “You are that one in ten thousand.” 

The bucking chocobo was enough of a distraction for Chloe to snatch the contract paper from Tifa’s grip. She turned back to see her placing it back in the folder, putting on a coy front.

“Oops, guess the bird’s yours now.” she shrugged. “Consider us even. Y’all did go through the trouble of breeding Goldie for us.” The stare Tifa gave her was bone chilling.

“I’ll remember that.” she said as she leaned in. Chloe answered the challenge, leaning in herself, the strength of southern hospitality in her corner. 

“I count on it.” The two were in a deadlock, electricity between their eyes. Then, they started laughing. 

“We’ve gotta get going,” she said, wiping tears of laughter tears out of her eyes. “Oh and Bill…” she paused, her demeanor now somber. “…is Bill still with us?”

“With us?”

“Well… I just—”

“If you’re askin’ if he’s dead, the answer’s no. He’s over there.” she pointed off in the far back of the barn. It dawned on her and Cloud that the creaking didn’t actually stop when Billy got up from the chair. In fact, the chair he was in, the one that Chloe was standing in front of wasn’t a rocking chair at all—just a standard four leg. The old bastard was STILL alive. His beard might as well have been a blanket, just sitting there. 

“Holy Shit.” Cloud exclaimed. When he didn’t see him, he just assumed he was dead. He must’ve been at least 90 by now. 90 years of hauling greens and wrangling giant birds and he was just sitting there, nursing a whiskey. Tifa made her way over and thanked him personally; Cloud just gave him a nod. The old man didn't speak, just nodded at the both of them. Zack and Fia rode out on Daisy; she was handling her nicely now. Onlookers were gawking and taking pictures of the affair. Fia did her best to not pose for her adoring onlookers; keeping the chocobo steady was her top concern.

“I guess we’ll be taking Fenrir.” Cloud said, looking up at his son. Zack’s eyes shot open, suddenly the grasp on Fia’s waist to keep balance was a scandalous act. 

“Oh, uh—I can get off if you—” but she huffed right in his face and made Daisy sprint forward, stealing Zack away from his parents like a bandit.

“Wow.” Tifa said, remarking on the intense claim Fia just made on Zack’s attention. “Guess she’s made her choice.”

“Looks like it.” Cloud sighed while straddling Fenrir. Guess it wasn’t the last ride, after all. Once Tifa got on, he started the thing up. They jolted forward a bit, but stopped almost immediately. Flipping up his goggles and looking back at his wife.

“What wrong?” she asked. Cloud was looking on at the two stomping down the grasslands and then back at Tifa, then at the two, then back at Tifa again. “What?”

“Do you wanna drive?” he asked, earnestly. The question took her aback. She’s never thought of it before, but now that she had, the answer was a resounding,

“Yes!”

They swapped places, Tifa got in front, getting her bearings on the bike. Cloud got on behind her, holding her hips for balance. A wicked grin crawled across her face as she revved up Fenrir and rocketed after the kids.

The highway was a no go. An expressway had been built between Edge, Kalm, and the newly re-established Republic of Junon, but chocobo aren’t exactly fast enough or hardy enough for the open road. So they went south bound, crossing the mountain step above where the Mythril Mines used to be. It'd've been a nice shortcut, but a collapse had rendered the mine impassable a time ago, and now it was nothing more than part of the steppe. This actually meant they needed to take a break to rest. The hours added up and by the time they crossed the mountains, the sun had fallen below the horizon. The pale half moon's cool light danced across the ocean's waves, but the light of Junon couldn’t be missed no matter how dark it was. Repurposing the metal was a task, but the reward was worth it. The mountainside went all the way up with metallic architecture, like it was one mass embedded into the wall. Safe to say without Shinra, the place was returning to its former glory. 

The gate staff definitely got his brain melted seeing a chocobo sidle up with two people on it. Stood up staring at the giant bird like a monkey looking at a monolith. He was young and only ever saw a chocobo in pictures or behind glass. A more seasoned officer had to wake him up and judge the group's paperwork. Fia had an “Oh shit!” moment realizing she technically might not have an identity but they got waved through without incident. 

“I’m not Shinra in those papers, am I?” Fia asked.

“You’d probably be in lock up if you were.” Cloud said.

“A~m I a Strife, too?” she prodded.

“What kind of oddball do you take me for? No you’re not a Strife.” He put the folder with their papers away. “You are Sofia Eris, for now.” Tifa scoffed and looked back at him.

“Really?”

“What? I came up with it on the fly. No good?”

“You really don’t think that’s a little…close?” Cloud paused, then thought, then his face scrunched up in an odd way as if not only did the thought not cross his mind but it was doing physical damage to him to consider it. Then he face-palmed the damage into reality. 

“Eris?” Fia questioned, wanting to know what the hubbub was about.

“We’ll figure something out later!” Was the only answer she got.

The party moved past the gate, beholding the spectacle of the city itself. Gone were the shantytown shacks of Under Junon, and the militarised outpost of Upper Junon. In its stead was a wildly new design. Architecture incorporating sharp angles, pointed arches and intricate glasswork. The buildings, skyscrapers in their own right, took unusual shapes: hexagonal and cylindrical towers lined with metal tubing near the apex and then ending in domes with lantern boxes or flèches. Were it not for the floating light fixtures lining the streets, the place could’ve been a nightmare maze to get lost in. Even more fantastical were the rivers that flowed between the streets from the top and across the city into the ocean. Drawbridges kept the civilian path open with aquatic trolleys ferrying people in the rivers at great pace. The whole place had an ungaianly feel; it was unlike anything they’d seen before. Cloud turned to Zack and Fia. 

“You guys know about Junon, right?” 

Fia’s brow furrowed as she wracked her brain, her mouth a whirring “u~m”, processing the question.

“Before Shinra, during or currently?” Zack piped up just like a teacher’s pet. Fia pouted at him. 

“Before.” 

“A city-state on a floating fortress anchored by a league of ships.” he began, taking note of Fia’s pouting face for the first time. “Uh…during the Republic era, Junon held complete control over western coast. Trade went through them or not at all.”

“Wait, it floated?!” Fia blurted out. “Like in the air or…”

“Just above to water.” Zack answered. “The ships kept it a float in tension but the city was lost… during the war.” He tried to say it as delicately as possible. 

“Until now.” Cloud said ominously. Fia’s eyes went wide. She was speechless, just pointing to the sea and squeaking “huh”s over and over. “You’ll see tomorrow.” Their winding mazy journey ended at the outer edge of the city, on the saucer. The buildings here still looked like a Shinra holdover with some slight alterations. When they arrived at the Hotel Mercuria they breathed a sigh of relief, saddling up Fenrir and Daisy. Fia’s newfound attachment to the bird, made the others need to drag her away. The hotel was a bustle, like Kalm was in the morning. A lot of the same faces around too. Seems like people had the same idea for travel plans. The desk person, Kayleigh, greeted them as they approached. She had all but checked them in with quiet efficiency before they could even realize. (Tifa 

“Thank you so much.” Tifa said, taking her room key.

“It’s no problem, friends of Rhonda are always welcome here.” Kayleigh replied. “If you need anything else, you need only ask.”

“Actually, there is something we need.” The woman leaned in. “We rented a chocobo to get across the steppe and we were hoping we could get someone to return her. We're willing to pay, of course.”

“Oh! We could do that for you, no charge necessary.”

“No please, I insist.”

“I wouldn’t dream of—” Cloud interrupted the pair, taking the card out of Tifa’s hand and placing it firmly on the reception desk. He raised his eyebrows at Tifa, who nodded in kind.

“You’re taking it.” she said, firmly. Kayleigh froze in shock. Then she pulled the card off the desk and ran the information in whatever could possibly fit chocobo return.

“T-thank—” she said, her speech faltering slightly. “I mean, thank you very much, ma’am. And sir. We’ll see to it that your chocobo is returned unharmed.” Fia pulled Zack down til she could talk in his ear, standing on her tippy toes.

“Your parents are pretty scary when they wanna be.” she whispered.

“You have no idea.”

For Fia, settling should have been easy. Having nothing on her meant she could pop a squat anywhere. It was a curious feeling and it shouldn’t have been complicated—she had the freedom she always wanted. But she couldn’t enjoy any of it. This whole trip had been the longest and furthest she’d been outside of her cage. As if she deserved it. She'd done her best to keep a lid on her anxiety, screaming the stagnant aggravation into her pillow once she got to her bed. Her eyes came up for air, depressed and half lidded with nothing to focus on. But her mind focused on him. That boy that started all of this. She thought about what they were now. Friends? They certainly were friendly enough to be. Lovers? They’d certainly done enough to be. But she couldn’t shake how she’d led him on in the beginning. No, all the way through had been a lie by omission. She knew all about him and he knew precious little about her. Only what she wanted him to. Had him wrapped around her little finger and caught feelings. And those feelings made her all the more guilty. Does she even deserve all this genuine kindness when their relationship was built on a lie? Even worse was how he was acting now. Something happened to him after he saved her. That wing, that look. It’s like he was half there and the other half was somebody else. Worse still was the inconsistency, like he was playing some tug of war in his head with how close he’d allow himself to get to her. It was infuriating, and she felt guilty for being so frustrated with him. It wasn’t his fault.

A knock came at her door. 

“Come in!” she called over. Then, she realized she was the one who needed to open the door. She clambered out of bed and Tifa was standing outside when she opened the door.

“Sorry,” she sighed. “I’m used to people being able to come in on their own.” 

“Ah, that makes sense.” Tifa giggled. “I thought maybe you left the door open in a crowded hotel. Or you wanted me to break the door down.”

“You could do it though.” she teased.

“Oh no, no, no, I could never.” she waved off even the implication, then gave her this look that said the exact opposite. The two laughed in harmony. Tifa had a warmth that put Fia at ease. The woman put the door to frame, giving them privacy.

“I wanted to talk with you.” Tifa said. “If that’s alright.” It gave her pause, but Fia nodded. “But first, you look hungry.” Breakfast was hours ago now and her stomach certainly couldn’t tell a lie. Tifa gestured for the two to sit at the table across the room. A nice coffee table accompanied by a long sofa, candlelight, a tea kettle and a binder of menus available for room service. “Let’s order something.” Tifa grabbed the binder, flipping through it. “Anything you want, we can order it.” 

“You don’t have to do that for me.” she muttered. 

“Do you want Wutaian food or Homestyle?” Tifa said, completely ignoring her previous statement. A pressure on her, the likes of which she’d never felt before forbid her refusal. She needed no reminder of earlier.

“Uh, Wutaian.”

“Alright!” After they picked their orders, Tifa brewed them some tea to drink. The hot tea soothed the girl and put her at ease. There was a settling moment where the two just sat, drank, and relaxed. 

“How are you doing, Fia?” she said, moving closer to her. “Really.”

“I…” she paused, about to say she was fine on reflex, knowing it was a lie. She normally deflected those kinds of questions.  “Not… very good." She took a long hard breath. “I just feel so guilty… I don’t know. Like I did something bad and got rewarded for it.”

“What did you do that was wrong?”

“I attacked your husband! A member of your family, and I just… get to go on a cruise?”

“It does sound odd out of context.” she admitted. Then, she regarded her earnestly. “But in context, you were… let’s say, confused and in a bad way. It made you do something you weren’t proud of, but it was our decision to invite you to come with us. We—me and Cloud, thought it could help you. To get out of that situation. Experience life. We’re not doing this as a service, it’s a gift.”

Fia exhaled deep, shunning her gaze. The words would abate her doubts for now. She could at least enjoy herself a little. Then, she let free a thought that’d been nibbling at the back of her mind. One that she hesitated saying to spare feelings.

“What was she like?” she said. “Aerith, I mean.” Tifa smiled, looking up at the ceiling, breathing deep. Flashes of their time together played in her mind as she began to feel those old memories return.

“What was she like?” she started. “She was incredible. Like a lamp burning without any oil. Or a ship sailing with the wind. Unstoppable. Everywhere she went, she went with this confidence, like nothing could hold her back. Whatever she wanted, she went for it, without anything holding her back. You’d think she’d be arrogant or out of touch, but no. She was—” she took a breath. “—kind and thoughtful and empathetic and…” she paused. “She was a wildfire and I was a matchstick.” She paused for a beat, looking back down at the ground. “I was so jealous.”

“Jealous?”

“It took a long time for me to follow my wants—to do what I wanted. I put others before myself a lot. Even Avalanche…even her. I still struggle with it.” Fia stared at her like she grew horns. No way, her? Tifa had this air about her, this pressure she could just exert of unrelenting sovereignty. She was abundant with it, you didn’t feel it as a force—you wanted to do it cause it felt right and only a few could challenge her. And the woman she felt this way about was jealous of someone else. “Really that hard to believe?” she asked.

“I just… it’s just really shocking that a person like that could exist.” 

“The way you approached our son.” Tifa gave a slight snicker.  “I…” she turned away, holding the jumbled words on her tongue. “Really, I didn’t realize it until recently. But, I do look back at our time together in a different light.” Her old friends face flash over Fia’s for the briefest of moments. It didn’t go unnoticed, that look of melting reminiscence.

“I really look like her, don’t I?” 

“Yes.” A single word was all she spoke. But it wasn’t of grief or woe, but elation. Like a mother who’d been reunited with their lost child. It pulled something in Fia. 

“Does it hurt? That I do?”

“No, not at all. It’s a gift.” There was that word again. Cloud had been right. She really did feel the same way about her. 

“Can I hug you?” She sprung a leak, a tear streaking down her face.

“Yes.” Tifa said, emphatically. She pulled the girl into a tight hug. Honest, warm, home. Without having met them, she knew those feelings. These feelings in an adult. In a father, and mother. In Cloud, and now in Tifa. It was true. People weren’t like Rufus, like the Turks. There were good people, and they weren’t in the distance. They weren’t delicate flowers to be looked at but not touched. They were here, and they would share themselves, freely. Fia held tight to the woman, holding on to that feeling. And it was to Tifa a mixture of emotions. She cared for the girl, but it was more than that. Once she saw it, she couldn’t stop seeing it. And not just her looks, the way she spoke, the way she acted was a rhyme to her—to Aerith. Despite that it shouldn’t be, it was. 

They only separated at the room service call from beyond their door. Both of them needed to clean up a bit before they were able to open the door. They ate, and were merry speaking about the past and the present, and Fia even endured Tifa prying into her feelings about… him. Until the time of night became too much for Tifa to ignore. 

“It’s getting late.” she said. “We’ll have to be up early if we’re going to get you vacation ready.”

“Right.” Fia agreed. Then stalled. “Wait what?” 

“You’ve been wearing that outfit for two days. I’m no stranger to roughin’ it in the same rags for a while, but we’re supposed to be enjoying ourselves, right?”

Fia nodded earnestly. Tifa smiled. She headed for the door, moving to leave and end the night.

“Goodnight—”

“Wait!” Fia blurted out, her hand outstretched to bade her stay. Tifa heeded. “Is… is Zack gonna be okay?” Tifa froze, breaking eye contact with a somber grimace. 

“Yeah,” she faltered in her first lie. “Everything’s going to work out.” Perhaps  “lie” is too harsh, more a bluff. But Fia saw through it regardless. She didn’t want to press it, though. It wasn’t her place. 

“You should tell him…” she managed. “Zack, I mean.” 

Tifa held still for so long Fia began to really regret having spoken up. But she stood by it. 

“I know.” Tifa muttered, barely audible as she left Fia’s room. She leaned against her door for support. Had she really changed? She was doing to Zack what she did to Cloud. If her loved ones ending up mentally broken was what holding back the truth led to, then of what point was the lie? To protect herself, obviously. From being caught vulnerable again. From getting her stomach cut open again. She walked back to her room, stopping at Zack’s door, swallowing hard, before continuing on to her room. That day, when she went to Rufus and had him strike all images of Sephiroth, she felt powerful. But all she did was put herself in a trap that showed her just how powerless she really was. The monk pressed her back into her door, a solemn grimace on her face as she contemplated the inevitable. Cloud was still awake and waiting on her, sitting on the bed.

“How was she?” he asked.

“I think she’ll be fine.” 

“But you don’t look fine.” He moved to meet her.

“We…” she struggled visibly, her grimace deepening. “We have… to tell him.” she told him, stepping forward, the two looking in each other’s eyes. “About everything.”

“I’ll tell him.” he said, immediately, like he'd been prepared for this. The words were like a slap. 

“We will tell him!” she shot back.

“You shouldn’t have to—”

“I’m his mother Cloud! I have just as much burden t—” Cloud revealed something when she shut down his gesture. A look to the side, clenching of the jaw. Another tell. “That’s not what you meant is it?” she prodded. She advanced on him until they were nose to nose. “I shouldn’t have to, what?!” They held their for what felt like hours before Cloud allowed the words to be.

“You shouldn’t have to pay for my mistakes.”

“Stop.” 

“The cells came from my body—” 

“Stop it, Cloud—” their words became warriors fighting for ground.

“—and I should’ve known better—”

“we both made that choice—”

“—but you weren’t the cause—”

“This isn’t your fault, Cloud!”

“But it’s my responsibility.” His harsh words nailed her to the spot. Though they hadn’t gotten louder than a dull roar, the two were heavy breathed, and holding ground like they nearly blew the house down. “I failed you again.” he lamented. Tifa looked at him, heartache visible in her eyes.

“Is that how you see this?” Cloud said nothing. Her eyes fell. She was at an impassable wall, now. He was ruining them, right now. Just one thing and he’d poisoned them. It was too much. The two stood in silence, a miasma weighing heavy on their shoulders, choking their heads with doubt. Before they knew it, they were opposite each other in bed, a gap between them. It was only a foot or so, but the length between them felt a million miles apart. 

“I’m the one that failed…” Tifa whispered into her pillow the words she’d wanted to say but couldn’t.
Cloud heard them, but said nothing.

Chapter Text

Soundless, sightless, the familiar inky blackness. The void again, but worse somehow. Falling—he was falling, sinking deeper into the sea of darkness. He was being consumed. Dread arrested his very being and he begged for the visions, something, anything to keep from sinking into the abyss, slamming his eyes shut. Heat, faint red light. The burning vision again. He opened his eyes, seeing in much greater detail than before. But it was wrong. There was always some level of control in each dream. It felt like it was still his body there. Not this time. This time, he was a passenger, a drift in a body like his, but not. The head turned, looking up at the carnage around him—carnage he’d not seen his last time here. Buildings burning, people moaning and wailing in pain and in grief. People split in two, strewn about like ornaments. One body caught the eye of the man who Zack inhabited. It was still moving, crawling towards him, muttering something he couldn’t fully make out over the roaring fire.

“Se…ir…ah…”

He smiled—that man smiled at the carnage and in that moment, Zack knew he wasn’t just some bystander or a survivor. He was the cause.

The boy woke up in a haze, it was still dark outside. Too restless to sleep, too tired to do much else. To the roof he went to think and process. Everything was so wrong. His memory, the visions—and Fia. Just the thought of her caused his stomach to churn and threaten to overflow like a backed up toilet. Worst still, he didn’t know where it was coming from. What happened that day? The way Fia tells it, nothing he could glean warranted his withdrawal. He did know one thing: the feelings he had for her were real. Couldn’t call it love, no way. But that want to be near her—to be with her; the aching in his heart when they were apart that he buried as deep as he could. For now, it felt safer to pretend everything was fine. But he was losing the war. Soon it would be untenable.

Dawn finally broke; the near black of the night sky shifted lighter and lighter, heralding the coming of the morning sun. Then he came, too.

“All those tender feelings.” That man had returned. That man he spoke to on that phantom day. The one thing he could remember without prompting. He thought him just a dream—hoped he was just a dream, but now he’d seen him in this waking nightmare. No point in feigning stoicism. If this him was truly in his mind, he’d know his next move. But the mask came on anyway.

“Couldn’t you’ve just stayed a dream?”

“I am very real.” That man gloated. “Just ask your father.” A shiver ran down Zack’s spine. He turned to see that vain smile on his face. “You think I’m the one keeping you quiet?”

“The hell are you—?” he started, but relented. There was no point in arguing with him. “…You’re just a figment, playing off my every fear.”

“A figment?” That man laughed. A sickening, vexing cackle. “A figment this vivid, you should see a doctor.”

“Shut up.” Zack grumbled.

“You shouldn’t have fears, boy.” the man said, now deadly serious. “A god doesn’t worry, he does. He takes.”

“Then why don’t you take me, since you’re some god?” The man just smirked.

“We take, but there is much joy in receiving. And, I’m not here to take over. Remember, I said this planet is your birthright.” Zack stood to rebut him, but something out of the corner of his eye distracted him. His mom and Fia walking off in the distance. It stole his focus, they were talking about something he couldn’t hear. His gaze on them held until they were out of sight. “Is that all it takes?” Zack shot a glare at the man who didn’t so much as pay him any mind. “To call you to heel, she need only flash you a smile? Yet you won’t so much as touch her first.” He spared the boy a glance. “Fear her fire yet yearn for her warmth. Poor boy. Too weak to take what’s yours.”

Zack lunged for the man but he vanished, as though he’d evaporated.

“You’ll see it my way soon.” his voice called from nowhere.

“Son of a bitch!” Zack swiveled his head, searching desperately trying to get eyes on him. He stepped carelessly and slipped, his stomach dropped as he fell to the street below. But it was no matter. When he regained his senses, he focused himself, landing delicately on the ground with no issue. The welling rage within him buckled him over as he fought desperately to not scream his lungs out. Why was this happening to him? Was he always crazy and just finally snapped? What could even do, come clean? When he just managed to put himself back together, he stood up straight and walked off as if nothing happened, not noticing the old woman who’d seen the whole thing watching on in stunned shock.

“Now it can’t be anything too expensive, but if we budget, we can get a few things.” Tifa said, flicking through a rack of tops. The vacant clothing store was more of a small boutique, but very eccentric. It was the only one open earlier enough to catch the boat. On the dark walls hung velvet curtains adding a moody atmosphere to the already quaint interior. A woman, the shopkeeper, sat at a sturdy mahogany table and was the only thing plain in the place. She was busy toiling away on a hat, one of many given the legion that sat behind her.

Fia stood back to get an overview of the assortment. A lot of the clothes there stuck out in what she would consider to be “unique” ways. Unique was too polite for some of them. A lot of random patterns and garish colors. Certainly far from the name brands, curated and tailor made threads she was formerly accustomed to. It was evident that while she could find something in this type of shop, it’d be… something?

“Try this one!” Tifa said, lifting up a champagne sundress. “Looks about your size.” Fia put the dress up to her body, looking in one of the mirrors about the place to get a rudimentary preview.

“Miss!” The voice of the shopkeeper called over from the front. Her accent was quite distinct. She’d placed the hat she was working on in line with the rest and had begun approaching them. “We have changing rooms in the back. It’s a tad hidden by the curtain.” Sure enough half hidden behind one of the curtains was a little alcove with its own curtain.

“Oh!” Fia said, giving the woman a wave in gratitude. “Thanks.” One of the oddities caught her eye, a tube top blue dress with an intricate pattern that traced up the side to the front. She couldn’t make it out but what baffled her was the extra accessory also clipped to the hanger. A hip scarf made of three scarves all fastened together by a large button. The biggest scarf was a golden color with a purple striped scarf hugging its underside. The third hung on the other side and dangled to the side.

“Look at this one!” she smiled, shifting her attention to Tifa. But the woman had her mind somewhere else, staring off into space. “Tifa?”

“Huh?” Tifa blurted. “O-oh, it looks…” she paused, actually taking in the dress. “What is that?”

“It’s something.” Fia chuckled, “I’m gonna try it.” And just like that she dashed behind the changing room curtain. Tifa spared a thought for how she’d actually look in it before locking her eyes on the shopkeeper.

“Do you have any swimwear?” she asked. “We caught a little snag and she doesn’t have much to wear.”

“We’ve only a few, to your left in the corner.” the woman directed, pointing out a small section off to the side. “Going on the cruise, miss?”

“We are. We’re from Edge.” she said, combing through the selection of seven whole items. The only item that even looked like it fit Fia was this strange green one piece with a belt around the waist for some reason.

“Oh my, that is far away, my goodness.”

“Yeah, it was quite the mishap.” An understatement she played completely straight. She held for a moment, thinking about yesterday. All of yesterday. Far too much. “Do you run this place by yourself?”

“Me and my sisters.” she replied. “We inherited it from our father. He was a clothing trader… and an eccentric. Often found himself the owner of several articles of clothing. He was also a hoarder. Mother didn’t like that, and said, ‘If you don’t sell these clothes, we’ll die buried in junk!’ and that’s how the shop was born. But he had a health scare and finally settled down with mum, leaving it to us three. I’m the oldest so I take the mornings.”

“That’s quite a lotta history. A whole shop between the three of you must take work. And quite early for you too.”

“Oh I don’t mind, the morning is always lighter. More polite people usually. And the two of them are about as lively in the morning as marlboros.” The two shared a chuckle. “I barely volunteered before they started hailing me as their hero—what a bothersome title.”

“Bothersome?” Tifa latched onto that word.

“Heroes are lonely. How horrible it must feel to be a saviour with no one to save you. I am simply content where I am.” The words gave Tifa pause.

“That’s…pretty sad.”

“Well, maybe I’m wrong. But thankless, grizzly work is far from what I’m doing here, surely. I simply mind the shop.”

“What was your name, again?”

“Sophie, ma’am.”

“No way!” Tifa gasped. “My~— what do I call her—a friend of my sons? Her…” she just pointed to the changing room “…name is Sofia!”

The curtain pulled back with a loud whip. Fia walked out from the changing room and stepped into the room with the confidence of a queen. It looked right. It felt right. The hip scarf accented the dress in a way she hadn’t noticed until she put it on: the scarves matched the patterns on the dress and had this interesting coordination that was unusual yet also striking.

“How is it?” she said, striking a pose. “Be honest.” Though it was obvious she thought she’d struck gold. And neither of them could deny her that.

“Oh my!” Sophie gasped in feigned but affirming amazement.

“You rock that!” Tifa agreed. Fia giggled, the contrast was immediate. And she liked it. There was something genuine to it. She still liked what she had, and this certainly wasn’t her old style, but it didn’t need to be. Tifa was using the money she had to help Fia feel more comfortable, despite the inconvenience it placed on her. The gesture itself made the clothes fit better, look better…feel better.

“All I need now is a swimsuit and I’ll be set.”

“Really? You only have this and your other clothes. Are you sure you can make it with only two outfits?”

“Yeah!” she struck another goofy pose, then retreated, cringing a little. “I mean… yeah. You’ve already done so much for me.”

“Nonsense—” Tifa cut in, attempting to make light of the gesture, but Fia refused to let her.

“It's true. You’ve taken care of me better than anyone and I’m telling you I can make it so I will!” The conviction in her words was, if nothing else, impressive.

“Okay,” Tifa smiled, “then, you get to wear~ this!” She tossed the green swimsuit at Fia, who caught it, looking down at the curious thing.

“What the hell?” The girl held it up in abject confusion.

“Apparently it was battle armor.” Sophie chimed in.

“Really?” Fia said, deadpan, believing it had to be a joke.

“So the saying goes.”

“And it’s a swimsuit because~”

“It’s waterproof.”

The three burst into hysterics, cackling like mad stricken witches just passed the crack of dawn, Though it’d been past dawn by some time now.
“By the way, Fia.” Tifa said, once she could speak without laughing. “You should meet Sophie, our illustrious shopkeeper.” Fia’s eyes grew wide, as if the thought of sharing a name was something she’d never considered a possibility up until this moment. But she wasn’t actually reacting to that. The clock behind them had a time on it, far past what she thought it should have.

“Uh… is that clock right?”

“Oh no, it's a bit slow actually—”

“We have to go!” Tifa gasped, the time had flown by so swiftly. They purchased the clothes with the gil they had on hand, and jetted from the shop shouting farewells that were caught by the wind and carried far into the city, as they raced for the ship.

Tifa checked her phone. Cloud’s messages and missed calls all appeared at once. Leave it to a shop out of time to also block cell signals. Cutting through winding streets, she shot Cloud a text letting him know they were en route. If they’d had any longer to run, Tifa would have had to drag Fia there. Barely made it, people were boarding and the line was short with Cloud and Zack sitting waiting for them. They had all their luggage plus one Tifa didn’t recognize.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing at the mysterious suitcase.

“Apparently,” Cloud started, “someone dropped off some luggage this morning for a certain someone.”

“WHAT?!” Fia yelled a slurry of curses, damning the Turks for their terrible timing. But to Zack, she was speaking the sweetest poetry. He caught himself staring, and even after he realized he was staring, he continued to stare. A helpless cycle of realizing he shouldn’t be boring holes into her and his eyes getting stuck on her again. Started blinking fast in a desperate attempt to break free. And that’s the exact moment Fia noticed him looking. She froze, grabbed her arm and averted her gaze, looking up, then down, then back at Zack. Adjusting a bit of hair, red marking embarrassment on her face.

“Does it… look alright?” she said, meekly.

“Mmhmm.” Zack managed, attempting to salvage his shattered cognitive abilities.

“We should probably get going.” Cloud interrupted the great romance in the air. He wasn’t wrong though. The line had whittled down to its last 4 people still on the dock, so they needed to hurry up. Still, Fia did catch that “Mmhmm” and she held on to it, despite wanting more. But she did notice one thing as they boarded, Tifa and Cloud were acting off. Usually they had a bounce between them, like they lit up each other’s worlds. But now they were strained. A bit like her and Zack.

Once they’d boarded, the crew made a big show of getting people to the back of the ship. A large tow cable hooked to the back of the ship and the two towing ships to its port, and starboard made it obvious the R.M.S. Jupiter wasn’t just setting sail, it was pulling something. Something big deep beneath the breach. And sure enough, a giant structure emerged from the water, erupting in a geyser as it shot forth from its former murky grave. The Lost City of Junon, pulled from the depths. The crowd watching from the port cheered loud enough to be heard despite the uproar on the boat. But none of the four could muster any joy. A cloud hung over their every action, their every thought, their every emotion; dragging them down like an anchor to where the lost city used to be. They sat mired in a stew of pestilence.

And that pestilence held them the whole first day. They filtered about the Jupiter, occupying themselves with meaningless things. But none more meaningless than Zack and Fia. The two took turns stealing glances at one another when just out of sight, desperate to break the tension between them but afraid of what awaited them beyond the barrier. And so they watched, and pined until day became night with nothing but lost time and frustration to show for it. The cheers and laughter of a decent sized crowd could be heard from the open foyer across the upper deck. A tournament was being held in some old card game: Queen’s Blood or something, it was the grand final match. Zack was too preoccupied with the ocean waves, moonlight sparkling on the surface, and the day that he missed. Certain spots were clear, others hazy and distorted. He was up, riding with his dad, fighting the Midgard serpent, then Fia, then…then… he said something. Something big. Everytime he focused on that memory his heart instead of his head. Through this stubborn endeavor he managed to remember. He said that he loved her, or atleast tried to. She teleported before he could finish. But he’d said it, and he’d meant it. A pang shot through his heart in fully remembering the event and it remained long after. Like a fluttering hearth with crackling logs sounding off on each replay of the would be confession. His mind was an angry bee box; tell her, don’t tell, don’t tell her, tell her, don’t, tell, tell, tell! Enough to make him queasy. But he was a freak. Before it’d been just phobia, but now he was actually losing grip—seeing a version of himself that wasn’t there. Even so, he had to tell her. His soul was screaming, demanding—

“Zack?” the voice of a girl came from his side. His face had betrayed him, allowing his inner turmoil to show visibly. Desperate to wipe the slate clean, he rubbed his face in his hands before he answered.

“Fi—” he nearly called out her name on instinct. But it wasn’t her. It was another girl, but he knew her, too. She was from his class, Rachel: queen bee, high profile type. They’d been in the same class since they were kids before Fia had transferred. Their interactions were sparse, of course, but he remembered her. Hard to forget her, really. Always had eyes on her, a natural starlet with a circle of friends and legion of followers.

“Hey!” she giggled a greeting. “Hi!” She wrapped her arms around him, a tight familiar hug.

“Oh, hey, Rachel.” he echoed a greeting, patting her on the back. Her usual force of nature was at full force.

“Didn’t expect to see you here!” she beamed. Odd. She was rarely so jovial. Not a mean girl, but definitely doesn’t give smiles away for free and certainly not to him.

“Same.” He said without much thought.

“Not a fan of the game?”

“I’ve got a lot on my mind right now.”

“Oh really?” she smirked. “Mister tall, dark and handsome is just gonna brood alone on the deck.”

“That’s the idea.” It took a bit for him to register the obvious part of that sentence, but by the time he did, she’d continued.

“You won’t be alone if I join you, right?”

“I uh—”

“Just out of curiosity,” she cut in, not letting him finish the thought, “how long are you staying in Del Sol? Daddy’s got a stake in one of the resorts on the water, so I get my own suite.”

“Actually when we get down there we’re gonna be staying at my parents hometown first.”

“Oh! Is your family from Corel?”

“Nibelheim.” A simple answer he couldn’t have foreseen as a slip up.

“Nibelheim?” she gawked. “Like ‘Nibelheim incident’, Nibelheim? Start of Shinra’s downfall, Nibelheim?!” Of course, she was paying attention in Comp His. Second in class behind him and he had the one with the head start. But it was so minor in the retellings.

“Yeah… that one.”

“That makes so much sense!”

“It does?”

“Totally!” she insisted. “You have this intimidating aura when you’re at school. Even when we were little you had this…” she pantomimed failing to get through a barrier. “Boom! Completely untouchable. What would make more sense than your parents having some crazy backstory? Y’know, I always knew you were special. When we were little, everybody got to wait for their parents in the playground and you were usually by yourself. There were some days your dad would come through and just nod his head at you and you raced off like you were off to do some adventure. Just something different about you, and… I always thought that that was pretty cool.”

“You thought I was cool?” he scoffed.

“Everyone thinks you’re cool!” she corrected. “But in that mysterious, unapproachable loner kind of way.”

“That’s not cool!” he countered. “Having no friends, it’s just lonely. I only did that to protect—” he stopped abruptly, then cupped his head in his hands. “What am I even saying?”

“I’m sorry.” she said, moving in closer, a hand placed softly against his arm..

“It’s not your fault. I’m just being stupid. I guess this whole time I—” she was very close, and tall enough to reach his head without issue in her shoes. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she leaned in, her lips dangerously close to his.

“You wanna be stupid together?” she whispered, a devious smile on her face. A flash in his mind saw the diverging path from here. He could just bury his feelings in another. One who knew less, one he could hide his faults from more easily. One he could build a persona around and never look back. Or he could face his fears, and be truly vulnerable in front of the one person who could actually hurt him.

“Wait!” he said, pushing her back before her lips made contact. His decision was already made before she even leaned in close. Even with the mix of anger, embarrassment and regret on her face, his conviction never wavered. “Sorry…I’m sorry. But… there’s someone else. Someone I already cherish.”

“Oh…” she muttered, averting her gaze, eyes trembling. “Sorry, that was really forwar—”

Zack was on top of her in seconds, the movement too fast for her to even process before she hit the deck. The first thought in her head was to complain about the mixed signals, then the next was wondering where the loud bangs were coming from. Gunshots? No way, right? But the cacophony of loud shots rang out from their side was proof positive. The volley paused.

“Are you alright?” Zack said, pushing himself off of her. Shocked as she was, she was slow to respond. “Hey! Are you hurt?! Rachel!” She looked down at herself, nothing red, no pain. A simple nod sufficed and Zack began picking her. Looking up to see Fia, right there. His stomach dropped. They looked at each other, the look of a million questions on their faces as they processed what was going on. But then they stopped. They focused on each other. In sync, they looked at Rachel, and then back at one another. Understanding with absolute certainty. As certain as the panicking Rachel under them. With just a nod between the two, Fia called forth a magnified shield spell to protect the deck as another volley of bullets loosed. Zack cradled Rachel in his arms, she began to calm as he carried her to the nearest door.

“W-w-what’s happening?” she stammered.

“We’re under attack, but don’t worry, we’ll take care of it.” he assured her, setting her down.

“‘We?!’” she scoffed in disbelief. “You’re not going back out there, are you?!”

“Yes I am.” he replied, leaving her there and closing the door behind him. Looking left and right, he assessed at least four people left to get out of harm's way.

“Won’t be needing your sword?” Fia asked.

“Dad’s probably getting it from the cargo hold right now.” he answered “And besides, I’ve got enough power in these two hands for pirates at least.”

“Just in case.” Fia held out her hands, forming a rudimentary long sword from ice and fashioning one of her scarves onto the hilt. Zack couldn’t help but give an impressed grin and snicker.

“You’re amazing, Fia.” he said, awe palpable in his voice. She couldn’t help but blush. But they didn’t linger—they couldn’t. Turning to the assailing force, their minds focused on the task at hand. Through the mana wall, the pair could see a black sea vessel which barely rose to the hull windows of the Jupiter. Grappling hooks shot into the hull from the invading ship, signaling their imminent arrival. A crew of maybe 20 or so people were either on board or making their way over. But the truly shocking thing is what they heard next.

“ATTENTION JUNON DOGS, THIS VESSEL NOW BELONGS TO THE UNITED FORCES NEO SHINRA! RESIST IF YOU WANT TO BECOME MAKO!”

Chapter Text

The space within the ship near the cargo hold was isolated from the outside world. Few people, fewer signs of life. Perfect place for an old soldier to be alone. Hard to even tell they were adrift in there, vaguely it resembled the barracks Cloud’d stayed in during as a Shinra grunt. And of course being alone was his favorite to-do. Right up there with getting stabbed in the gut, and watching the people close to him die. But what could make things right? He’d already proven himself a failed hero and worse, he made Tifa feel bad for it. Now there was a gap between them. Such a sorry state of affairs.

“Rough night?” He wasn’t alone in the corridor. Another soldier for sure, maybe a bit younger, but the full beard hid his age. Eastern features as well. The uniform and service pistol on his hip said it all: security detail.

“‘Nother day in paradise.” Cloud replied.

“That bad, huh?” Didn’t need to reply. His face looked like he held one percent of the world's total suffering rolling around in his body. “Trouble with the wife or—”

“Light work on your end?” he deflected.

“So far so good. But there’s been rumblings. Danger on the strait. Terrorists. Claiming to be Neo Shinra.” Cloud’s face scrunched up upon hearing that.

“That’s real?!” Cloud shook his head. When Fia said she was Shinra’s legacy, he thought it unbelievable even though technically it was true in her case. But there were actually people repping being Shinra successors. “What people do with their freedom.” he groaned, shaking his head. “What’re the odds they’ll show?”

“Dunno. Reports are scarce and they’ve never attacked anything this big.”

“And you drew the short straw and got stuck down here as the treasure hoard doorman?”

“As the treasure hoard dragon.” he corrected. “Gotta look on the light side, y’know?”

“Bit light on the detail in suspected pirate waters.”

The man cracked his neck. “But no one would dare attack a vessel of the New Republic of Junon!” Words dripping with sarcasm so thick, you could almost taste it in the air. Cloud just nodded. He noticed the guy fidgeting a little. Slight micro movements of his hand and mouth. He wanted to say something. “Saw the swords you checked in. You’re Cloud Strife, right?”

“That a name worth knowin’?”

“People in the know know about Strife Delivery Service. And people more in the know know about your… other escapades.”

“Like what exactly?”

“You're a legend, man.” the man said in reverence. “A near twenty year career of taking down the biggest and the baddest. Shinra, Weapons, Gods, the whole lot!”

“I’m nothing special.”

“Shit man, what are the rest of us, then?”

The muffled clattering of automatic fire impacting the hull interrupted their chat. Alarms rang out within the ship signalling for passengers to seek shelter inside. The guard checked his weapon and took a call over his earpiece.

“Oh shit. Got it!” he said. Before starting towards the upper deck. “Stay here. You’re not gonna believe this, but that thing we JUST talked about is happening. Now. We’re about to go into lock down.”

“What’s your name?” Cloud asked, halting him in his place.

“Ken.”

“Did you really just tell a living legend to stay behind while we’re under attack, Ken?” The man was too stunned to speak. Cloud continued. “Tell you what, give me a way into the cargo hold: you’ll get to see this legend first hand.” That got a wicked grin on his face.

“Oops!” Ken tossed a keycard Cloud’s way, shrugging as he turned. “Must’ve lost my keycard somewhere. I was following directives at the time.”

Cloud just scoffed at the obvious truth auditing. One swipe and he was in the cargo hold. Every checked item getting shipped with the well off passengers laid before him. No doubt the others were out there defending people unarmed. No time to lose. He could at least do something useful. Fenrir held the arsenal. His and Zack’s swords with a few extra things he had stored away. Whether or not they’d need it was for later. From the reverberating vibrations, better safe than sorry.

Focus was clear, get anyone left outside inside. So that’s exactly what Zack did. With lightning speed, the remaining passengers whisked away in a flash, finding themselves inside the ship. With his work done, he focused his attention on “greeting” their guests. They were boarding en masse, still firing shots at the ship. More specifically at Fia. Her barrier held, but its area had a limit. Certainly a bastard with at least the bare minimum intelligence could take advantage of such a flaw. Security held tight behind a makeshift barricade with most of the people inside, but through the windows they could see Fia holding up the barrier—protecting them from a hail of bullets. One guard saw the mounting force about to engage on Fia and decided to do something about it. Ignoring the protestations of the other guards, she slipped through the barricade and fired upon the pirates. A brave effort, but foolish, only one of her shots managed to put down an invader, drawing the ire onto her.

“Za~ck!” Fia called out, beseeching him.

“I’m on it!” Zack said. In a leap, he’s on the pirates, they number 12. A split kick to two temples and they number 10. Automatic gun fire litters the spot where he stood—where he once stood. A spinning ball from above, Zack’s leg struck down like lightning. Foot cracking helmet and head hitting floor were nearly indistinguishable as separate sounds: lightning strikes, thunder follows. A gut check sent the next one airborne, that left 9. A flick of his wrist loosed forearm from its joint, making gunfighting impossible for the eighth, but he’d not need it. The sweeping leg had him off his feet and a hooking kick turned him into a weapon against two of his allies. 6 left. Their numbers had halved before they managed to process they were wasting bullets shooting at the deck. One of them just managed to yell for them to back off. He was next. Didn't even know what hit him, an elbow strike? Knocked the taste out his mouth, along with a few teeth. The 5 that remained stood still, their conviction wavering if not completely shattered. Zack stood before them, a demon, an unaccountable variable that turned a semi difficult hijacking into a complete motherfuckin’ disaster. And there was only one thing zealots like them do in the face of utter defeat.

“You’re not even using the sword, big guy.” Fia huffed.

“I don’t want it to get messed up.” he replied sheepishly. “It’s…special.” Fia rolled her eyes, failing to hide the smile creeping across her face. She settled for turning her gaze from him.

“You two need to get inside now!” the guard barked, her gun pointed at the remaining terrorists as she went to cover Fia. The name tag on her chest named her: Rosalie Amin.

“But if we don’t deal with this, they’ll just swarm us.” Fia protested, but the guard had her arm in front of her, attempting to usher her towards the door.

The barrier fell. Like having water slip through her fingers. They too had materia. Someone must’ve been in hiding, whittling away at her barrier with dispelling magic. No matter, she’d just put up another barrier before they could shoot again. But Zack saw what she didn’t. The mote of fire that had slipped in when the barrier fell. On instinct, he whipped around to protect her.

Then he heard a pin drop. One of the gunmen had pulled the pin of a grenade and was cooking it. Definitely planning to sprint towards the people inside, an evil grin splitting his face. Zack needed to act fast. Rushing over at blinding speed, he split the fire ball in twain with his blizzard sword before it could engulf Fia and the guard. Fia recoiled, having not seen the spell until the last moment, staggering her. She lost track of reupping the spell, but that was the least of their worries now. Zack looked back at the grenadier, he’d cleared way too much ground. Zack had to make a play. If he got past his sight line, who knows what they could do. He’d throw the sword in a hail mary. Reversing his grip to toss it like a javelin, he readied his toss—a bullet whizzed past his face stealing his focus. Suppressive fire. Acting fast, he deflected the shots with his frost sword, the brass bullets falling coated in ice. If he threw the sword now, Fia and the guardswoman would get caught in the crossfire.

He was running out of time. But before he could even make a final choice. The bomber was thrown back into the remaining 4, knocking one of them overboard. Bomberman was still holding the grenade as he laid slump against his allies when his assailant, Tifa Lockhart Strife, kicked the bomb a hundred feet skyward. The immense explosion rattled the boat despite the distance. Clearly, the mad bomber had planned to take everybody with him. She grabbed the bastard by his throat and lifted him in the air.

“Do you have ANY idea what you could’ve done?!” she growled. “How many people you would’ve killed?!” The man grimaced as blood leaked from his lip.

“We…” He struggled against her iron grip. “are…reclaimers of the Shinra empire.” his words a clenched whisper in her grasp. “People like you are holding humanity back.”

“People like me?”

“Those without the vision and the drive to elevate the human species. The promised land could’ve been ours if not for—” His words were choked to a halt; the vice grip around his throat making him see spots.

“You would kill indiscriminately for something that doesn’t even exist?” Feet dangling in the air like a child. He fought against her grip with all his might but was like fighting the earth during an earthquake.

“For the record,” one of the fallen allies piped up with a mouse-like murmur, Tifa stared daggers at him. “I thought this was only gonna be a heist, not full on terrorism.”

“Shut. Up.” she ordered.

“Shutting the fuck up.” he obliged.

“Actually, no.” she released the zealot who slumped to the floor, choked unconscious. Grabbing the mouse and hoisting him to his feet. “What are you here to do? Quickly.” The man started confessing immediately.

“The mission was to humiliate Junon! Specifics were loose and th-th-the guy who told us what to do, told us over a recording and I only joined last minute ‘cause I needed some pape—”

“That’s enough.” Tifa cut in, halting the unyielding logorrhea. The man clammed up fast as Tifa put the pieces together. That’s when the other two joined her on the stern deck with security guard in tow, shell shocked from the ordeal. It was clear she was still green and rattled by the explosion. Still she clung to her fading conviction.

“They stopped firing at us.” Fia said. “But something’s off, I can feel it. Like a pool of magic swirling on that ship.” Tifa nodded and turned back to the turncoat.

“Anything you’d like to share?” she glowered down at the man as if looking at a cockroach in her kitchen.

“There’s…” he quavered. Then he gulped. Then he sang sweet confessions. “there’s thr-three guys down there with some crazy materia on board. A driver. He ain’t a mage. I think. I don’t get magic so I don’t know what they're for.”

“I’ll take care of it, mom.” Zack cut in, moving towards the ship's railing. Tifa held her tongue.

“Be careful.” Fia called after him. Tifa just gave him a look. Zack gave them both a nod, put a foot on the guard rail.

“Wait!” Rosa shouted. “You’re not seriously going over there are you?!”

“Yes I am!” he said, and leaped over to the other side landing at the front of the black ship.

“No way!” she blurted out, running over to the edge of the boat in disbelief that he actually jumped. She whirled her head around to Tifa in a panic. “How could you just let him go? He’s your son, right?!” Tifa just smiled.

“He’ll be fine.” she said.

“Yeah,” Fia concurred, “guys this weak pose zero threat.”

The woman was too stunned to speak.

On the boat, Zack took in his situation. No more mistakes. Before him were as the turncoat had said, three people in cloaks and a fourth obscured in the back behind the wheel. The three were huddled in a triangle holding an orb of scarlet light. Summoning materia. They all turned to him as he drew steel—ice on them.

“Tell ya what,” He stalked forward, holding aloft his frost sword. “If you’re willing to surrender, I’m willing to let you live.” Each cloak looked to him, displaying fear without needing to even show their faces. Nervous, agitated breath told the tale. But then, one spoke.

“No fucking way!” An older man’s voice shrilled from one of the cloaks. “No fucking way that’s fucking Sephiroth!”

Searing pain doubled him over in a single word. That name. He felt it deeper than just happenstance. Deeper than study. He knew the name personally. As if someone he knew held that name. Flashes of his dreams assaulted him as he hit the floor. The vision of the fire, that man he’d seen, he’d called out to Sephiroth. Was that who he was in that dream? In a flash, the vision was replaced with a memory, one he’d lost. The bodies strewn about the town engulfed in flames became the bodies of the Turks strewn about the forest edge. He’d killed them? Lost control and killed them. Truly, he was the monster he’d thought himself to be. His internal anguish was cut short when a shotgun barrel pressed up against his face. The driver had come into play.

“I don’t care if he’s Sephiroth, his love child or a look-alike, imma’na waste this fool! Stick to the fucking plan!” A pull of his trigger, a shell had discharged—straight into the air. The look-alike still had the presence of mind to bat the gun away. The triad had resumed channeling, even Zack could feel the telluric energy pooling between them. Pushing the driver aside, he rushed them.

Too little, too late. Zack was blasted into the hull of the ship with such force it managed to shift it off balance, flinging people off their feet. Zack hung limp indented into the ship's hull. His whole back was throbbing as he pulled himself loose, but worse than that, the sword Fia had made for him was just a hilt now. As aggravating as that was, his frustration paled in comparison to his shock at seeing the monster before him. It was huge. A head like a moray eel with a mouth that ended well into its neck. See through skin—no, the creature was water itself with serpent’s eyes, and a horn atop its head with some sort of glowing crystal inside it. Watery tendrils sprout to either side of the creature—impossible to tell where it ended and the ocean began. The pale moon light glowed fractured light through the creature's flowing mass, short-lived as it was. Steel clouds apparated, swirling in the air overhead as thunder clapped, rain fell and lightning struck. The summon was no mere fiend, it was a god, maybe one long forgotten or from another world entirely. But one thing was certain, those that summoned it erred enormously. They’d been crushed in its appearance, loosing it from all control. A being such as this would wreak untold chaos unless something could challenge it. Or someone. Rosa’s legs were that of a fawn’s, staring up at the horror before her. Her mind was unable to process the enormity of it, her breath held. The god-creature radiated wrath. With a mighty crack, its tendrils whipped down at the ship.

Rosalie recoiled in fear; shuttering her eyes, letting loose a final scream, bracing for an untimely end. But the end didn’t come. When she regained the courage, she saw the dark haired woman wrangling the water in a beautiful dance. As if her body were a cup; the water could do nothing but match her shape. The other tendril was being punched and kicked into water splatters by the silver haired young man. A roar emitted from the beast, an odd humpback whale cry, but had its mouth and head frozen solid in that instant; courtesy of the blonde mage underneath it. The two fighters move in sync, getting underneath its jaw, blasting the creature into ice shards with an explosive dolphin kick, sending the scattered remains into the deep.

As the thing faded into the sea, Zack sighed in relief.

“You’re relying too much on brute strength.” Tifa noted, his efforts had left him soaked. “Have you really been paying attention during our lessons?” Zack’s face went blank, the urge to talk back was quelled by the sudden familiar humpback cry. It had regenerated. And now a wide berth from their side of the ship.

“Mom, can you quiz me about proper form after we save everyone?”

“Out of a hundred sound fair?” Rosalie finally realized she was out of her league out here and the people who were in league were clearly mad. She staggered her way back behind the barricade. Her superiors would’ve given her an ass reaming had they not also been near frozen in fear. The trio stared out at the water god in the distance. Curiously, it wasn’t approaching.

“Maybe it’s backing off.” Fia said. Looking out at the sea told the true story. The once calm ocean waters were churning and crashing, becoming more and more violent. Lightning flashed as it roared again. As massive as the Jupiter was, it was rocking back and forth like a dingy.

“It’s hitting us from afar.” Zack said. “Wouldn’t be surprised if it sent a tidal wave our way.” Lifeboats sat right below the railing, Tifa and Zack jumped into one each.

“I can still hit it from here.” she boasted, holding two fingers up and squinting down the vanishing point. “Ice magic only though.”

“It’s more than enough.” Tifa smiled. “You’ll be our trump card.”

Zack unwrapped the scarf on the leftover hilt and tied it around his head, absentmindedly. Then he placed the remainder of the sword gently back on the ship. Fia noticed the act—her scarf going on his head. She didn’t say anything, though. Mother and son cut the ropes holding the boats, landing in the water with a mighty splash. A big push off sent them both forward to confront the foul thing, riding the lifeboats like surfboards. As they grew nearer and nearer the water became rougher and rougher, catching air at times. On their approach, they could see a change in the creature. The water of the beast’s body was no longer as translucent, filled with an accumulation of ocean matter. Dirt, shells, coral, and seaweed packed into a rigid carapace reinforcing the water god’s body with a pseudo endoskeleton.

It roared as they approached. From its shuddering jaw shot giant missiles of salty brine, hurdling over to the approaching two who avoided each shot deftly. With each shot, a geyser exploded on the spot, raining the seawater on the two as they raced on. A final shot loosed from its morayan maw right in front of the heroes, an attempt to head them off—cut their attack off short. Fruitless. The two leapt from the water wall straight at the creature. It reached out with its tentacles to block their approach. Frozen again. The creature eyed the boat in the distance. Fia had rendered it inert again. Without a word, Tifa took hold of her son and whirled him around, like a spinning top. At the right moment, she flung Zack down towards the thing’s horn, an obvious weak point. The end was in sight. But the damn thing broke free from its icy muzzle. That extra mass allowed it to resist being fully frozen. Its mouth held open to welcome the fresh morsel in.

“Shit!” The thing would swallow him whole before he could land a single strike. Then his mother would follow, or worse, she’d catch up to him and push him out of the way. He had to do something. Think, think!

“No giving up!” He heard the shout from the ship. The sword he’d used on Midgardsormr was a buzzsaw heading straight at him. Catching it in one hand, he sliced cleanly through the monster's face and impacted the horn with his sword from inside its mouth. Immediately, the body collapsed, hitting the sea with a round of applause from its droplet body. Zack landed on the remains of one of the lifeboats that could still tread water and Tifa landed shortly after. Glancing back at the ship, where the voice of his father had rung out. He was standing next to Fia, holding a thumbs up. Zack couldn’t see it, but he felt it. But something was still off.

“I came all this way thinking we were getting attacked by humans.” Cloud said. “Then I get up here and you three are fighting a kaiju made of water.”

“Yeah.” Fia responded, sounding exhausted. All that spellcasting had taken its toll on her. “We… almost didn’t need you! Almost.” Cloud just rolled his eyes. Such overconfidence despite panting like a dog. Before they knew it, the water rose again.

It was still alive. And now Fia was his target.

Slamming its form into the ship like a giant wave, engulfing the two in a heavy torrent. The impact rocked the ship, knocking over passengers who had moved into the lower decks for safety. Neither Cloud or Fia could find purchase within this watery prison, the air forced out of the girl’s lungs from the sheer pressure. Cloud sliced at the avatar of water with all his might but couldn’t hurt it. It was literally as useless as cutting the ocean. He looked over at Fia who was barely holding onto consciousness. They were helpless.

And Zack felt helpless, too. They rushed over but the gap was too wide. Too far to save them. Too slow to get there in time. Deep within his gut, he felt it. The call from his body to let That man in. To receive his power. To do whatever it took to free Fia and his father. And in an instant, he was atop
the kaiju, slicing down once more into the things horn but not with his own sword. That enshadowed blade had returned to him, one onyx slash and the creature was sent back into the deep. Cloud and Fia were free, gasping for breath with Fia hacking up water. She was in his arms, wing outstretched as he lowered himself to the ship. And yet, despite being in his arms, she felt so far away. Both of them did, as if they were becoming strangers to him. What feeling drove him so virulently to save them, again?

Chapter Text

In times of disaster, it makes the most sense to find safety and stay the course until the calamity has ended. Yet there exists in people a greater fear than certain danger: uncertainty. The fear of uncertainty was so strong, the passengers of the Jupiter, instead of seeking shelter in the lower decks, found their eyes glued to the spectacle before them. Like a movie come to life, they watched as four of their fellow passengers defied fate itself and not only challenged a monster of that size, but sent it packing multiple times. Many watched in awe, like Ken. He’d spent a large part of his life hoping to see a sight like this. Still others, like Rachel, were another story. She’d always thought there was something different about him, something awesome. But seeing for herself the truth, that wing, his eyes it was all so…terrifying. Awful.

The storm was getting worse, the Jupiter was rocking back and forth like a seesaw. The deck was getting drenched in a torrential downpour the likes of which made it appear to be taking on water. But the pitterpatter of rain on his head was the least of Cloud’s concerns. He could see it in his son’s eyes. That look—so close to… him. No way he was getting caught flat-footed again.

“Zack!” he yelled, standing up to confront his fading son who couldn’t even be bothered to turn his head to look at his father. “Don’t fade away! Whatever he promised you, whatever he seems to be, he just wants you as a puppet! Don’t let Sephiroth control you!” That statement got Zack’s attention, turning to meet his father’s eyes. His hair was getting long again. The barriers that kept Zack Zack and not “him” were so weak now. He was drifting further and further into himself, like a wayward corpse drifting to the bottom of the ocean. That piercing gaze, the inhumanity of his aura; his hand trembled, desperate to reach for his sword. The half angel eyed him with curiosity.

“What are you talking about?” he said, plainly but the implication was terrifying. “Father?” The word faltered as it left his lips. Those paternal words were a million miles away before their weakened syllables reached his ears unparsably. That’s when he felt his arm jerk.

“Please, son!” Cloud grasped his arm tight, desperate to reach him.

Zack merely flicked his arm and his father went flying across the ship. Managing to land his feet, his sword in his hand off instinct alone. The act alone sickened him. Raising a sword to his own son. He looked at what was left of him. That man was hollowing Zack out, making himself at home in his son as he’d done to him all those years ago.

“Zack!” Tifa called over from the other side. Climbing over the railing to see her worst nightmare unfolding before her. What stared back at her wasn’t her son. The blue eyes of her baby boy had turned sickly green, serpentine and cold. He looked at her with such unfamiliarity. That alone nailed her to the spot. Like a long nail hammered into her heart. His own mother was a stranger to him. She wasn’t looking at her son. She was staring at the face of her father’s killer, her husband’s tormentor—her tormentor. Half the nerves in her body told her to fight and the other half told her to run. She gritted her teeth, and stepped forward regardless.

“Honey, it’s me.” she smiled, despite it all, desperately trying to reach her son underneath. “It’s mom. Your dad and I are worried you’re—” His hand rose to halt her. It froze her to the spot. She gripped her knuckles white, spurring her courage forth. “Please…come back to me.” The dam burst from her eyes as she realized her son may very well be gone, another thing stolen from her. She’d sooner die. Cloud had jumped in between them, his sword drawn in a defensive posture. “Cloud, don’t you dare—!” she shrieked.

“I won’t hurt him,” he vowed, returning his sword to his back. “but I can’t let him hurt you.”

Zack looked at the two with such contempt. Whether their words were lies to deceive him or a truth he’d long forgotten meant little to him. They had lost all meaning to him now.

“Hey, big guy?” Fia smiled, wearily. A smile so bright it pierced the darkness that clouded his mind. “You know, you’re wearing my scarf.” She lowered herself from his arms. With little thought, he’d taken the scarf from his head, holding it in his hand as it trembled. He felt the pull on his soul being hauled from the depths. A migraine formed as Zack wrestled control over himself. His shaky hands matched the instability of his mind. Like a broken eggshell trying to put itself back together. That’s when he felt her take his hand. With both her hands, she pushed his hand closed around her scarf.
“You can keep it for now, but there better not be so much as a hole in it when you give it back!” she ordered. No longer sinking, Zack nodded.

“Mom…Dad?” he said, his eyes fixed on his parents—his normal, tender eyes.

“Oh, my baby!” she sobbed. Tifa dived for him. Wrapping her arms tight as a vice around him, overwhelming him with the kisses of a distressed mother finally able to hold her son again. Zack didn’t squirm or shake as he normally would, just accepting it. Cloud collapsed to his knees. What he’d been through had just caught up with him. Taking hold of the railing to steady himself, they were all made aware of one ugly little detail. That thing they’d struck down three times already was STILL alive and far ahead of the ship.

Fia let out a loud groan.

“It's been three times already! How do we kill this thing?!” she griped.

“I’ll end it for good.” Zack said, the darkness returning to his voice.

“No!” his parents shouted in unison. He couldn’t help the “Why the hell not?” face he gave until he felt his hand get taken. Fia was there and she shook her head.

“We’ll do it together.” She held firm.

“Okay.” he looked off to the lingering threat. A mass surfaced from the water, looking like a pincer, a crab’s or lobster’s maybe. The craggy digit rose covered in hardened sea particulates and the remains of sunken ships. It was learning, adapting, growing stronger. The rigid shell popped open, slowly stretching to its limit point, locked and loaded. A flash of light and clapping thunder followed the incoming water bullet heading straight for the ship with steam trailing behind the super heated vacuum. Fia leaped into action. With a strained cry, she summoned an iceberg that took the brunt of the attack, exploding into fog veiling the ship. The Jupiter was jostled violently, yet it remained sea worthy. The mage nearly fell to her knees, gasping for breath; if not for Zack catching her, she’d be on the floor.

“So how are we gonna do this?!” Zack barked. “We’ve broke it to bits three times now!”

A high pitched shimmering sound made Zack and Fia turn around. Cloud was holding a yellow orb of materia.

“Been a while since I’ve needed to use this.” He held the assess materia up to the creature. “The horn is housing a shitton of energy in that crystal that splinters out to the rest of the body.”

“But we’ve been hitting it, haven’t we?” Tifa asked.

“Maybe it’s not just what we hit but how we hit it.”

Fia’s ears perked up as if she’d heard something. A whisper on the wind. She listened closer, closer, drowning out the noise around her. And once she heard it, she repeated it.

“Positive Energy.” Fia strained out, huffing and puffing. The crew looked at her, puzzled. “It’s got nothing but… negative energy running through it. Hit that horn with… positive…energy and he’s not coming back.”

“Positive energy?”

“If I could…hit it with…lightning or something…”

Cloud knelt down and handed the girl the staff she’d lost, along with an ornate bottle of light blue liquid.

“That staff I—”

“Think you can handle it?” She looked back and forth between the bottle and Cloud, as if to process if what was happening was real. Then nodded. Fia downed the bottle in one go. A turbo ether. Oddly sweet but went down smoother than water. Her exhaustion was gone before she could even wipe her mouth clean. She grabbed her staff and stood tall, moving the hair out her face.

“Handle it?” The Cetra’s eyes shot open in a glare, irises glowing with arcane blue light. An aura shimmered around her form, exploding out in a flash of heat like a hot summer day through an open door. None of them could believe her power in that moment. Fia stepped up onto the bow’s railing and held her staff over the edge.

“No, I wanna kill it.”

She snarled, then released her weapon. It flew straight down, stopping right at the ocean’s surface. In an instant, the sea was covered in a thick layer of ice. Even the Jupiter was made to yield, shuddering to a stop. The flash freeze reached the monster in a flash, it roared a guttural cry and struggled to resist freezing over. The girl stood with a regal grace worthy of a stewart of the planet. Zack felt his face get hot, a feeling he’d scapegoated as the heat of Fia’s aura despite it having long passed. With poise, the mage stepped off the railing and floated down to the spot her staff had landed. Passengers inside the ship jolted, falling over one another. All they saw was Fia drop her staff and the ship came to a halt. They couldn’t see the ice form, but could only pray for their own salvation.

“Wow…that uh” Zack stammered an eighth baked sentence. “…dammit, I lost my sword!” He finally realized.

“Hold your hand out to where it was.” Cloud bid him. He did as he was told, and in mere moments, the sword was in his hand. Zack stared bewildered at the blade in his hand. “It’s linked to you. Hard metal, remember? I never got a chance to tell you what it can do.”

“Maybe now is the best time?”

“It’s a triple changer.” Cloud said, “Hardedge…” he pointed at it in its current form. “Raikiri…” the sword changed into an Odachi fashioned with a long hilt, “and Hofund.” Its final form had an odd jagged blade, almost like a key. The father, the mother and the son slid down the hull to join Fia, facing the enemy on icy ground. They moved as a unit, like wolves approaching the frost stricken god.

“We’ll divide his attention,” Tifa said, adjusting her gloves. “Fia, you strike it when the time is right.” The frontliners dashed in for the kill with Fia keeping to her own pace, signalling the beginning of round four. The water god roared, sounding almost feral and desperate. Its mouth gaped open as hundreds of gallons of water were expelled from its throat.

“Trying to wash us away?” Zack questioned. Cloud analyzed the situation. The deluge was getting smaller. Faster. More constricted. It was turning its water spout into a water jet, a hyper pressure line of water potent enough to bore deep into the ice sheet.. The beast flung its head wildly, cutting long trenches into the icy sheet in random directions. The old soldier darted forward, intercepting the beam with his blade, splitting the current at its end like a fraying thread. Tifa and Zack charged forth, intent on landing devastation on the foul thing. Jumping to get in its face, the thing vanished before their very eyes. Like before when one of them had struck its horn. Mother and son scanned the horizon for any sign of it. They didn’t need to wait long; it exploded forth from a spot in the ice near Cloud; a spot its water jet had carved out a weak spot in. Bits of the ice shards had become incorporated into the things gigantic form and glowed with a prismatic light.

A suspicion Cloud had had observing the creature had been proven: the thing was adapting, benefiting from their exchanges, employing strategy. They needed to end this, now. Its tendrils slammed down at the old soldier but he was a ghost, reappearing above its head and slamming down with a Braver. If the horn made the thing turn to water when struck, the crystal inside must be vulnerable during that moment of weakness. So it was surprising to him when he found a thick horn of amalgamated ice inside the horn, hard enough to repel his blade. Had the thing taken the magical ice and infused it with its own power? Couldn’t ponder much on that before a giant claw snapped him. A millisecond faster and he’d not have been able to get his off hand sword out in time to keep the thing from crushing him. But it mattered not to the water god. The deep sea was calling it back down, and Cloud was going with it. He struggled against the might of the ocean with all he could muster but couldn’t make an escape. The edge of the icy water was welcoming him to the abyss, but Tifa put a stop to it in the nick of time, landing a double kick on the claw that cracked it, if ever so slightly, but enough for Cloud to slip free. And not long after, the water god burst free from another hole it had prepared.

“I can’t get a good shot at the horn.” Fia said as she caught up with the two. “It’s using the ice as cover. I could melt it with fire but…”

“It’d just sink beneath the waves.” Cloud finished. “We need a different approach.” Zack came in on that note.

“Gotta be a way to keep it from slipping!” Zack said. “It’s like tryin’a catch a fish with your hands.”

“Then we need some kinda net.” His father piped up. “If we don’t finish this soon...”

You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. Those enlookers that couldn’t help but watch the trial of their fate were now gathered at the front of the ship. They observed the obvious, their heroes were at a standstill and their doom was still alive. Each and everyone of them gawked on with bated breath, crying, begging, or praying to anything that would hear to let them live through this. The murmurs of indistinguishable voices became a chattering hum, like bees buzzing in unison. So much energy and it was being wasted on fear. Ken was having none of it. He pushed his way to the very front of the bow and shouted against the booming thunderstorm.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” The crowd’s attention shifted over to the man yelling. They looked up at him expectantly, as if he were some prophet giving them the good news. “Do you even know who’s out on the ice?! Who’s fighting for our lives?!” The guard pointed out to the party. “That’s Avalanche!” The murmuring became focused, talking now about where they know this “Avalanche” from or why a mass of falling snow is gonna save them. “These guys have fought Shinra, tooth and nail! They fought Weapons—” the murmur escalated at that. “Yeah that’s right, Weapons, Monsters, the biggest and the baddest and they’ve finished them all! If we’re not gonna fight it ourselves, at least give ‘em some encouragement, yeah?!” Ken whipped around and took a mighty breath.

“AVALANCHE! AVALANCHE! AVALANCHE!” He shouted in chant with all he could muster. Rosalie joined in almost immediately. One by one they joined in the chant, calling out the name, “Avalanche” with more vigor then they would their favorite sports team. The chant grew louder and faster, drawing notice to the four on the ice. Zack looked confused, Fia looked embarrassed. Cloud and Tifa just smirked before locking eyes.

“I need you.”

“I’m here.” Tifa affirmed without a moment's hesitation. Cloud turned to the kids.

“We’re gonna net it. You’re gonna kill it. Got it?”

“Got it!” They said as one.

Team Cloti sprinted ahead to draw the creature's ire. A great gurgling came from the god’s throat that made the under ice churn. The water rose, eclipsing the battlefield with a giant ice laden tsunami. Were it allowed to continue, it’d capsize the ship at the very least.

“Tifa!”

“I’m on it!”

The monk ran ahead, splitting the wave with a stunning somersault. Cloud followed her up, glowing with an azure aura, the swordsman held his Tyrfing skyward and swung the sword with rising force. The winds were at his beck and call. The water god was sent towards the heavens with a Finishing Touch. Tifa did her part, too. Underneath, the water swirled up through the wind tunnel in a vortex. A way out if the monster was smart enough. No letting that happen. Her body moved in a well honed maneuver ending in her fist colliding with the ice floor; Fifth technique: Fighting Spirit Sphere. A giant orb of silvery light formed at the bottom of the hurricane when she slammed her fist, trapping the titan in with no way to escape into the sea below it.

But its real worries were above it. By chance the thing glanced up. There, backlit by a streak of lightning was the one winged angel, his sword as Raikiri, raised to slash down at the creature. A flick of Fia’s staff and a bolt of thundaga struck Zack’s blade, coating it in an electric current that crackled and chirped like a flock of birds. They had figured out how to finish it. All it would take is one slash.

Zack was plummeting to the planet before he even knew what hit him. Through fluttering eyelids, he perceived the weakening of the winds, the waning of his mother’s Chi Trap and what had knocked him from the air. The god's claw, though cracked was intact. It used a chunk of glacier within its own body, compressed it until it was harder than diamond and shot it through the rushing gale and managed to knock him dead. He was a hapless quail, impacting the ice floor with enough force to punch straight through.

“ZACK!” Cloud, Tifa and Fia cried out in unison as he fell. Tifa and Fia ran for the hole with Cloud following behind, facing the beast whose form was returning to the sea. The crowd of once hopeful cheerers were now grappling with their impending demise in worse fervor than last time. If even Avalanche couldn’t stop this thing, what was gonna happen to them? All that planning, all that effort, just for their best hope to be squashed like a bug. The chaos before them had become too much to bear.

In the legends, Raikiri was named by its master, a sword saint, who used the blade to cut in twain a bolt of lightning; thus earning its name: “Lightning Cutter.” But there is another part of the tale. Who so ever splits the javelin of the gods, may become themselves, lightning. The second its body touched the water's surface a branching bolt shot through its body, lighting it up like a lantern and shooting out its horn in an arrow of light. The creature fell as it had before, but with it fell the storm and the waves did quiet. Only once the storm clouds let free the moon's light did the passengers let loose elated cheers. The last thing Zack heard before he fell once more the icy floor below.

Chapter Text

They had to carry Zack back to the ship. All so inconvenient that he falls unconscious after every hard fight. Especially when his parents had something they needed to tell him. Cloud had half a mind to hit him with some smelling salts and get it over with, but now needed the strength to be gentle. Fia had offered to keep watch of him, so they dropped the two of them off in her room leaving Cloud and Tifa inundated with the passengers’ praise and admiration. The party had become celebrities and were showered with extravagant gifts, offers for employment, and even a request to paint them. Nude. Obviously, they declined all the offers they could. Some were quite persistent. Keeping the crowd from disturbing Fia and Zack were a handful; damn near worse than dealing with the monster. At least they could kill the thing. Eventually though, the crowds did die down, leaving Cloud alone on the back deck staring listlessly at the black and white moonlit horizon. Those thugs had gotten taken care of but there wasn’t any reason to dwell on them. For once since they boarded, his turbulent mind was quiet. The battle, though perilous, had given him the calm he desperately needed. A buzz in his pocket drew his attention. Tifa.

“Meet me on the upper deck.” the message said.

A good a time as any. He’d been running and hiding from confronting the issue between them, but now the strength was within him. The walk over allowed him to formulate his apology; for burdening her, for all the failures of the past. He would reavow his resolve; be her hero once more. When he got up there, there was no Tifa to be seen. Across the whole upper platform was seen no person at all; not a Tifa nor even a Tifa shaped object in sight.

“Up here!” Tifa’s voice called from above. The large metal tower next to him stood about forty feet high with platforms and rungs jutting out from the sides at places along the way up. There on one of the platforms Tifa sat, legs dangling off the side. Cloud got up to her in a single leap. He’d kept forgetting to thank Fia for fixing his back, but so much had happened. He stood before her, his well rehearsed speech retreating before her beauty. The thing that gave him pause in his weaker moments. Just a smile, tinged bittersweet.

“Sitting up here almost reminds me of back then.” she said, looking up into the nearly black night sky. “But there’s so few stars in the sky. The light of the ship it’s…what did Zack call it?”

“Light pollution.” he answered.

“Oh, yes.” she said, nodding in remembrance. “He’s always been so, so bright. That boy. So kind and sweet.” She turned to face him. “Where do you think he gets it from?”

“You.” Cloud said, “Obviously.”

“Why’s that obvious?” Tifa countered.

“Cause you’re you.” he scoffed, finally sitting down next to her. “And I’m me. Awkward, distant. Even past that old mask. You’re kind and noble, truly. Effortlessly Strong. Strong enough to be gentle. His light’s gotta come from somewhere, and you’re a light in everyone’s life. You certainly light up mine.”

“Like you light up mine?” Flustered again. He was much more animated this time, looking about like he got turned back into that thirteen year old who couldn’t even look her in the eye. Tifa just giggled. “Why is that so unbelievable?” He didn’t have an answer. Not one that wasn’t deprecating. That’s not what anyone wanted to hear. And yet, why was it so unbelievable? Perhaps he’d gone through his life just believing one day Tifa would come to her senses and realize how much better she could do. With only his promise to her as a buffer.

“I seem to recall you risking life and limb to help people you didn’t even know.” She put a hand on his cheek, turning his face in lock with her. “I recall a young man who gave a flower to a young girl who was scared of him. A man who took a boy in when he lost his family without a second thought. A man strong enough to recall, even through mental degradation, a young girl’s promise to protect her.”

“Anyone would.” he said plainly.

“Would they?” The woman put her hand on Cloud’s. He didn’t pull away. “Could they?” She looked deep into his eyes, and he to hers in kind. “Even after all you’ve endured… I’ve been thinking about that promise lately. Do you know why I put that on you when we were little?” His brow furrowed, eyes moving about as if searching for the reason: it dawned on him he’d never asked himself why before, merely believing it something Tifa had said. The silence spoke for itself. “You really shocked me when you said you were going to Midgar. Joining SOLDIER. I’d never even been outside of the village before and…it felt so far away—it was so far away; half a world away. It scared me. That I’d never get to see you again. So I made you promise me—promise me you’d come rescue me. So that maybe, somehow, when you were out there being a SOLDIER, you’d remember our promise and you’d come back to me.” She moved even closer, now right next to him. “And you did, Cloud! A thousand times over! Why are you still unworthy?” Those eyes. Those scarlet eyes that felled his walls, that beckoned the truth from his lips. If only it were so simple.

“It goes back further than the promise.”

“Right.” she considered, demurely lowering her eyes. “Mt. Nibel.”

“Over the years I think I’ve…faced it, I’ve beaten it, but I’ve never killed it. Every now and again it gnaws at me. Topples me when I can’t…”

“Save me?” she added.

“I hate it!” He tensed his fist, then moved in to cup her cheek. “Seeing you hurt, scared, lost, when I’m supposed to be your hero.”

“But I hate seeing you hurt too.” She returned his gesture, leaning forward so their foreheads touched. “And I hate it even more that you might be hurting because of me, to shield me from something I’ve done. I don’t want that for us.”

“I don’t want that for us either. But I can’t guarantee I’ll never falter. That I can be your hero.” “Could you accept that ‘me’, that failed hero—?”

She kissed him right there, her answer on the lips she laid on to his. They broke. She looked at him with those warm eyes.

“I don’t have to ‘accept’ him.” She kissed him again. “Because I already love him. I always have.” Cloud couldn’t hold himself back. The miasma, that pestilence which Sephiroth had brought upon them had faded and its place, a passion the two had thought lost. He was on top of her, caressing her tightly and Tifa was loving every second. The need she’d been suppressing was sated with bliss. Until, of course, it dawned on her where they were. And Cloud showed no signs of stopping. A ravenous hunger was evident in the man’s needy lips devouring her. The woman couldn’t help but giggle, putting a hand on his chest to bade him pause. He did. “There’s my soldier boy.” she giggled again, the sound of which nearly sent him over the edge. “But I think we should maybe plan our next move first. With Zack.” Cloud paused, made that quick exhale he did when his brain hits a snag, then nodded in agreement. She almost laughed again, but saw that look in his eyes. They sat up, stiff and awkward like teenagers caught by their parents.

“So we should tell him.” Cloud finally said.

“Yes.” She agreed. “Everything.”

“Okay. When he wakes up we’ll tell him.”

“…Yeah.”

“Could be a while before that. Wanna check on them now? He was out like a light last time.”

“What are you suggesting, Cloud?”

The fallen angel came to in the windowless white wood varnished inside cabin. Many of these rooms had the same overall design but this one wasn’t his. No dreams this time which was lucky for him. Even luckier, he had opened his eyes to see a familiar face looking down at him.

“You gotta stop conking out on me, big guy.” She was stroking his silver hair the light above making her look like an angel.

“It’s not so bad.”

“For YOU, maybe!” she pouted down at him, pulling out her phone and sent a message.

“Was it not good for you?”

Fia scoffed but failed to speak any more than a babble as her cheeks turned red. Zack sat up on the seafoam green bed and turned to the girl with a tender smile that melted any lingering false annoyance she fronted. They both leaned in.

“I’ve been meaning to—” the two said at once.

“You go.” Zack insisted.

“I’ve been meaning to get something off my chest.” She fidgeted with her fingers. “ I’ve been avoiding you…and the truth.”

“You already told me you’re Shinra. If it's about that, I’ve already forgiven you.” Fia shook her head.

“That’s not it. Remember when we were under sector 8, when you compared me to Aerith?” She paused, leaving Zack to ponder what she could me. Then, he remembered her magic.

“…Oh. Fia I—”

“After we separated, they showed me everything. Rufus Shinra enacted a project to ‘save’ the Cetra race through cloning. These experiments used Aerith’s birth mother as a DNA base. There were 39 of us with a different father each. I just happened to be his. Apparently,” she chuckled grimly, “before I was even born, we had this shared consciousness thing—all of us Cetra embryos. Fully formed, but we wouldn’t wake up. In this half living state, we communicated with one another and with the planet. Like some community of half souls.” Her eyes fell. “Then we started dying… one after another. I’d have died too if they hadn’t shocked me with mako.” She stopped herself. “I’m rambling, sorry.” The blur in her vision foretold the coming storm. The very last thing she wanted. “Back in Kalm, when you confronted me, and you were going to tell me you—” she averted her gaze, deserving none of the light from his eyes. Tasking herself to not cry no matter what. Not in front of him. “And I thought that me being Cetra was the reason I didn’t deserve that—didn’t deserve anything close to that. Like my existence prolonged the suffering of others—your dad, your mom but it’s more than that. Everything was a lie, I lied to you.” She failed, not noticing she had until the pitterpatter of her tears clued her in. “Dammit, I didn’t want to get like this. I used you to get away from my babysitters. That’s all it was and I…” the girl hitched. “I’m just like my father, manipulating the people around me to get what I want. You shouldn't have wasted those words on someone like me—those feelings on someone like—” Zack held her close, his tight, familiar embrace filling her body with warmth and her stomach with butterflies. She meant to fight it at first, but folded to her buried desire for his touch. Even in the act, the joy it gave her was tainted with her lingering guilt. “Should’ve known. You do this when you don’t know how to help, right?”

“I know exactly what I’m doing.” he responded. “My friend is hurting. I’m just giving her a shoulder to cry on.”

“All lies.” she rebuked. “Our relationship was a lie, who I am is a lie…” she wiped her eyes, a sisyphean errand and she knew it. “These tears could very well be a lie, too. Can you really call me a friend when everything was fake from the start?!”

“Well, it started with you stalking me, so things were pretty iffy from the jump. If we’re being real.” A soft giggle broke through her sobs; a smile melting the frown on her face.

“I told you, I was not stalking you!” she protested with a smile on her face.

“I don’t know~.” he teased. “You show up, ask to be study buddies as a cover to date me—”

“You!” she vehemently, yet gleefully interjected. “You are the one who wanted payment for the study sessions!”

“And you chose a date as payment instead of the 2000 gil you had on ya.”

“Oh crap.” she grumbled. Now he was the one laughing. A short hearty laugh that sent vibrations through her. Then, he smiled softly down at her. A tender smile that made her heart skip a beat and face turn red like a stoplight. Only he could do that it seemed. Fluster her without a word. Titan forbid, he actually says something cool.

“It’s not how it starts. Even if it was a lie, we can just start over with the truth.”

She scoffed. “Just like that? Start over from the beginning?”

“I can pretend my parents aren’t Avalanche this time, so we’ll be even.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes, a smile still plastered across her face.

“Was I really that obvious?” she asked, so sure in her ability to lie. Had he read her the whole time?

“You’re a really bad liar, actually.” he bantered, eliciting another laugh from her. The smile on her face betrayed the reddened eyes she sported. It'd been so long since she’d felt happy without guilt, without that gnawing feeling of self loathing. And though she wasn’t there yet, this, right here, is the closest she’d been in years. They embraced once more. A shorter burst this time, yet still as sweet.

They broke.

“Ok.” she started. “Your turn. What did you have to say?” The pressure hit him in an instant. He’d gotten lost in her, but now the spotlight was on him. How curious that helping the vulnerable is always more difficult than being vulnerable yourself. The boy readied himself for the truth.

“Fia, I’ve…” he started. His head began to hurt. “It’s about that moment. In the woods.” He rubbed the back of his neck. Moving through this embarrassment was like squeezing his whole hand into a wedding ring.

“Yeah!” Fia began, almost too enthusiastically. “Then say it. Say it right now!” She pierced him with a manic gaze that made him swallow hard. The pressure was almost too much, but he couldn’t back down. Not now. Not a moment before he went to respond, his head was wrought with shooting pain. His vision blurred, flashing images of the Turk’s bodies strewn about, the fear on the last one’s face—that girl Elena. Had he done that? He must have. His memory of that day, slowly piecing itself together. This must’ve been what had happened. Fia didn’t know—she couldn’t have known, that’s why she could even stomach being near him. She had to know. That man took over his body and he could do so again. And after all he’d just said.

“Zack?” she said before Zack grabbed her shoulders, arresting her focus, his gaze deadly serious. He had to tell her.

“Fia, there’s another me.” he spluttered out in desperation, grabbing her by the shoulders. The other him chuckled. “In my mind. There’s someone else. I see him. He looks like me, but isn’t. He’s twisted. He was there when I… what I did to those people, your bodyguards. Ever since I started having these dreams…” He looked upon her face for any sign of incredulity, any speck of bewilderment. Maybe to latch on to; that his reality was warped in some way. But Fia was deadly serious, hitting him with a raw intensity he’d never seen from her.

“Another you.” she confirmed with an eerie tone. As if she knew something more than she let on. “And he's for sure you or is he someone else?”

“I don’t—”

A knock came at the door.

“It’s open.”

His mom and dad walked through the doorway, stoic and serious like he’d never seen before.

“Zack.” his father started, a pit forming in the son’s stomach. “There’s something we need to talk about.” He nodded at Fia. “Come on.” Zack looked back at her, seeing the reassuring smile on her face let him know it was fine. They could continue later on.

“Thank you, Fia.” Cloud exclaimed as the Strife family left to confront the unknown. The trio made their way to the parent’s cabin across the hall. Faintly, he could grasp the anxiousness they were holding back. It dawned on him he’d lost track of the other him when he entered their room.

“Have a seat.” his mother said. He obliged, sitting on their beach themed bed as they stood starkly before them.

“What we’re about to say is gonna be a shock.” his mother began. “There’s something we’ve been keeping from you your whole life. The story we kept up to keep our lie going. We’ve been putting it off for a while now for our own sake, but—“”

“Wait.” Zack cut in, believing he could see where this was heading. “Are you about to tell me that I’m… adopted? Cause I already figured that.” He looked up at them, incredulous.

“Huh?” they both faltered, glancing between the both of them.

“I mean look at me. I’m not exactly your spitting image. We’re all adopted right? Me, Marlene, Denzel. I’m not under the impression you love us any—”

“Zack. Stop.” His mother seethed low and full of fury. In all his years alive, he’d never heard his mother sound so loud, so rageful. But that rage served her no good; she found her husband's hand holding hers, his support beside her. She took a breath to center herself. “You are right. Denzel and Marlene are just as much our children as you are. But you are NOT adopted! You came from both of us!” Dull confusion covered his face yet he refused to speak against her. If the distinction didn’t matter, why was she getting so worked up? “When you were born, you had my hair, you had your father’s eyes and you were undeniably ours. But then, when you turned five something changed. Your hair turned white and your face began resembling…” she halted, then as one, his parents said the name. The name he’d heard in spades, yet never given any thought to. The name he couldn’t have known would be his undoing. The name of his tormentor.

“Sephiroth.”

A splitting headache felled him for a second time, the buzzing of a thousand hornets stinging acid into his brain. Cloud and Tifa held him steady, this song and dance being all too familiar to a certain swordsman. The fuzzy, splitting pain only quieted for his opening eyes to glimpse a black feather falling before his face.

“Finally.” Sephiroth said, now leaning up against the wall behind his parents. Zack, through his pain, couldn’t take his eyes off him, hastening hyperventilating breaths as he stared. Cloud noticed it clearly. He followed his son’s gaze to the wall Sephiroth was standing against, standing up.

“Cloud?” Tifa looked up at him.

“He’s here.” he said, his posture tense. “Isn’t he?” Sephiroth walked over to him, that smug smile plastered on his face.

“Good to see you. Cloud.” He moved past Cloud whose focus never left the wall. “Even if you can’t see me. But you know now, I am here.”

“Sephiroth?” Zack grimaced. “But he’s just…”

“Just some guy?” Cloud finished his son’s thought. “Died in the Nibelheim incident when Jenova woke up? He was the Nibelheim incident. He discovered Jenova’s head hidden away and burned our village to the ground to get to her.” The story retold like walking down a well worn path. Even so, the scars in the grove were evident in his voice. Tifa took the reins.

“Your father managed to stop him before he could do any worse. But he was hurt. I was hurt. I got taken away to a doctor. I escaped. But Cloud was taken by Shinra and infected with his cells. To make a clone of him. Of Sephiroth. To be conduit for him. He warped his mind, hollowing him out, infecting his perception of reality. When we told you our past, we replaced him in our story with Jenova. We didn’t—we couldn’t let him take anymore from us. But it ended up just hurting you instead. We’re so sorry.”

His head was no longer in pain, his vision was clear yet his mind was a dull throb. Sephiroth was gone. He was gone.

“I…I understand.” he said. Cloud and Tifa were clearly expecting any response but that. “I mean, this guy tortured you, right? Tormenting you since you were younger than me. Slotting him in for Jenova in the story you told makes it obvious. I mean…there’s no way it didn’t hurt seeing me change into…him. Didn’t let it stop you from loving me, regardless.”

“Oh Zack!” They moved in and pounced on him like flanking wolves, enveloping him in a hug. “You aren’t him and you never will be!”

“Yeah.” he stood abruptly, breaking their grasp. His parents stood to meet him. Never had he been so tall to them. Nothing had changed in his height and yet, he towered over both of them. His face, enshadowed as his head eclipsed the overhead light making his face unreadable.

“You don’t have any questions for us?” Tifa asked.

“Not right now.” he said, curt. “I’m still really tired, I think.” And without much more fuss, the boy wordlessly went for the door. Cloud put a hand on his shoulder.

“Even if what you have to say is rageful or upsetting, you can say it. You don’t have to hold back. I know we’ve hurt you.”

“Good night, dad.” The two stood in stunned silence as he left. Fia was to the side of the door when he made his exit, waiting for him.

“Zack?” she said. Might as well have been to the wall. Zack didn’t so much as acknowledge her, walking right past her. “Zack!?” she raised her voice to get his attention. Only then did he stop and register her. His eyes, for a split second, were full of sullen pain, only to be replaced with a caricature of his normal gaze.

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t realize…”

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah.” he forced out, quickly.

“Did they tell you… about Sephiroth?” It took a beat but he managed a nod.

“Well… I want you to know, I knew about him too. Sorry I didn’t say it earlier. I just thought it wasn’t my place to—”

“Yeah, I get it.” He interjected, flustering the girl.

“I uh—”

“Let’s talk about this tomorrow, okay?” he asked. Fia acquiesced, despite her misgivings about his demeanor, her gut told her pushing right now might be a bad idea.

“If you need to talk, I’m here.” she affirmed. But all he did was nod as he took his leave. Any longer and his mask might’ve disintegrated. The truth is meant to set you free, but for Zack, the truth tore a hole straight through him. The blanketed bliss of ignorance he took for granted had left him in the cold. But he couldn’t let it show. He wouldn’t burden those around him. The only power he still held was over himself. For now.

He stepped into his room to find him there. Sephiroth, sitting on his bed, looking at him expectantly.

“It’s good to finally meet you,” The man in black grinned, a parody of genuine joy. “My son.”