Chapter Text
(the original prompt)
Icicle Village was always a target for monsters when summer came. Not the birds singing and flowers blooming kind of summer. The pole was showered in the constant light of the sun, forcing the already coaxed awake monsters of the white landscape restless with insatiable frustration from unsatisfied sleep. Though the larger creatures claimed the few large caves and the smallest hid throughout the honeycombs of smaller crevices in the mountains, the rest prowled constantly, their tempers cut short and their eyes bleeding red. No nomad or adventurer was safe, but the village defenses were enough to protect the citizens as they had for many, many years. So they were surprised when Shinra’s SOLDIER program offered aid. The War in Wutai was coming to a close, but SOLDIERs still needed training, afterall. So they sent their First in training with dark haired his mentor to deal with the issue.
The Second Class was too hyper for battle, itching for every fight possible, much to his mentor’s dismay. He charged into every enemy without plan, action, or any perspective on the consequences. Luckily, and simultaneously unluckily, the boy gleaned through these mid-sized monsters with only growing scratches, rather than the broken bones his mentor would use as a teachable moment. However, his body was slowing from the numerous shallow wounds. Not enough to stop him, but enough to be noticeable in his walk.
The sun was low, red in the sky as what should have been the moments before dawn shone above them. Another hour and the sun would rise to orange, then back to the bright yellow of noon at barely 6AM. It was probably 4AM right now, and the dimmer light calmed much of the monsters in the area. The shimmering mountain cliffs and ice formations were stunning to behold. For now there was a moment of peace, so the mentor took it as a moment to heal his overzealous apprentice.
“Zack,” Angeal called to him as they walked, though he was only a few yards ahead in the red snowscape. When his apprentice turned around, he held out his hand, and a green glow emitted from it before speeding into the boy. “Here.”
Zack looked at his body in slight bewilderment before he watched his scratches close before his eyes. He grinned and nodded at his mentor. “Thanks, Angeal!”
“Hm.” He mirrored the nodd in response before asking, “Did you forget to grab healing materia before we left?”
He scratched the back of his head and glanced away. “Nah, I just didn’t bring any,” He brushed off as he continued their march through the mountain. “I did stock up on potions though.”
“Zack.”
Oh no, not that tone. It took everything he had not to groan at the coming lecture.
“You can’t keep ignoring the necessity of healing materia.”
“But if I brought healing materia I’d sacrifice another elemental weakness to take advantage of, like you made me do with the barrier materia,” The black haired boy countered like a child, all but huffing with a pout.
“You never know what’s going to jump out at you. Especially in situations like this.” Angeal gestured to the cliffside littered with caves. “Any number of monsters can pop out of these and ambush us. An extra cure can be the difference between life and death, under intense circumstances,” He explained, but saw no reaction from his apprentice, who only slightly slowed their march through the snow as he searched in any direction besides himself. “Zack, are you listening to me-”
He ran ahead, his steps pounding through the white powder as Angeal stared in bewilderment, one arm in the air in a questioning motion. Then he sighed and dropped his hand, shaking his head.
“Just like a puppy…” He muttered in slight frustration as he followed at a slower pace to scan for movement above his apprentice.
The boy’s path was a straight line through unstable formations, but they both pressed forward. Zack sprinted over snow drifts and nearly started an avalanche from his incredible lack of stealth. But they quickly arrived at a cave of boulders near the bottom of the mountain, not a single monster track nearby. The entire entrance arched around the boulders, with cracks between each one, too small for a person to fit through. Yet when Zack reached the entrance, he grabbed the first rock larger than him and threw it yards away, then repeated the process for the next one.
“Zack what are you-”
“Listen,” Zack commanded in a tone he never used with Angeal. Strict. Serious. Desperate. He finally locked eyes with his mentor and stopped all his movement.
The only sound was the soft whistle of the wind through the peaks, but then he heard it, only thanks to his enhanced hearing from the mako. There was no mistaking it, though it was barely a wheeze, a whisper, a raspy voice on the wind, gliding softly within the boulders.
“help…”
Zack saw the shock and confusion hit Angeal’s face the same way it hit him a few moments ago and instantly returned to his task.
“Oh, shit!” Angeal threw himself from above the entrance and dug through the boulders rapidly. Who the hell is out here this time of year?! How did someone get caught in this? Snow from an avalanche was an understandable predicament. But how did this many boulders end up in one place?
Both of their questions only rose when the boulders were just as densely packed inside the cave, the rocks sharper as they broke further within. The structures formed clear shapes, sharp, rectangular growths from all walls in all directions. That was it. This person was attacked by something with earth materia, with the inner magics perfectly shaped and the boulders by the entrance worn down by the elements. But how long has this person been here? Each new discovery led to a new question rearing its ugly tilted head. How far were they from the entrance? Was this a tomb? No, it was too bare for that. They needed to focus on clearing the way, but something sounded strange. The voice, its direction…Not in front of them, but meters, meters, below.
“What the hell…?” Zack mumbled to himself. It was back to spheres, the rocks. Whoever was under there was absolutely running out of time. The two SOLDIERs both shook off their shock and looked at each other. “Can we use any magic to clear it?”
“Not without risking an avalanche.” Angeal stated. “Keep digging, and stay focused.” Though the order was given to his apprentice, his apprentice had every right to return it to him. They steeled their focus and tore through the final barrier. Zack launched the boulders to Angeal, and angeal knocked them out of the cave. They were running out of room, and the mound of rocks outside was only growing in size.
First they revealed a hand, and the person gasped weakly. Their pained pleas stopped until the SOLDIERs removed the weights.
It was a man, covered in dirt, in all black clothing. Long zippered jacket, heavy boots, thick gloves. Sections of cloth were torn and degrading from obvious struggle. He was coughing, shaking, either from the damage already done to him or the relief of the lowered load to breathe easy again. His hair was blonde, spikey, like the leaves of a palm tree. But his eyes.
His slit pupil. Mako blue eyes. Sephiroth will need to see this if they can get this man back to HeadQuarters.
Then the man sighed in relief as a raspy whisper, his foggy gaze straight ahead. “thank you…”
“Can you move?” Angeal questioned first, reaching out a hand to help the man up, a faint green glow emanating from it. Zack copied his mentor’s movements for the other hand.
But he shook his head so faintly it was barely visible, his odd gaze unmoving as it stared at the cleared ceiling. However, he moved his arm like molasses, deliberately, mechanically, to meet Angeal’s hand. It did the same for Zack’s, and the two carefully, slowly began lifting him up, first arching him to sit but then-
“Ah- ah-!” He yelped, the loudest sound they heard him make, when he tried to use his legs, and now he met their eyes, his desperate expression burning onto them both.
“Come on, we got you,” Zack coaxed softly, mostly for himself, as both he and his mentor ducked under the man’s arms and held him up by both of their shoulders. He groaned from the movement, but he suddenly stopped. They both looked to see why.
His head was down, his body limp and unmoving, his eyes closed. He passed out. After what they found him in, they couldn’t blame him, and they silently pulled him out of the cave.
Angeal used his free hand to grab his phone out of his pocket and brought it to his ear. “This is Angeal. We need a copter near Icicle village. I’m sending coordinates now. We found someone. They need medical attention ASAP.”
“Why don’t you use a cure?” Zack questioned softly, with only the slightest hint of mockery from the earlier lecture.
Angeal gave a glare before finishing the conversation on his phone, “Understood. We’ll meet you in the plains.” He turned off his phone before answering his apprentice. “I did.”
They only now realized the cave was sloped down. This was intentional. This odd man’s suffering was planned.
* * *
The rapid chopping of the helicopter blades deafening all other noise inside the craft, save for the headsets they all wore, on the flight back to Midgar. They kept communication to a minimum for that reason. Now that the SOLDIERs finally got this man out of the cold, they searched for wounds. Though the tears in his clothes showed no injuries, there was no possibility the boulders left him unscathed.
The man was fixed in his seat along the wall, the seat belts and safety straps crossing over his body in multiple X formations. His head rolled and leaned with every tilt of the craft. Sadly, they lacked any item to support his neck on this journey, unless one of them held his head up the entire trip. But right now, he needed to be checked so they could dress any wounds possible.
They started with his jacket, peeling the zipper down the long length of the coat. A coat nearly as long as Sephiroth’s, Zack couldn’t help but silently make the comparison. Opening it revealed a black V-neck shirt of thin fabric, perfectly formed around the torso, despite the small tears. Still no visible wounds. Zack carefully lifted the man’s shirt as high as he could, and with the faintest glide of his hand, he felt the ribs below the skin, broken, some even shattered like dining plates.
“We should lay him down,” Zack yelled to Angeal over the roaring motor.
Angeal nodded, unclipping the many, many straps that held him in place. There were few options for laying someone down, and Zack and Angeal silently accepted they would be standing or sitting on the floor for the rest of the trip.
Zack removed the man’s gloves so he could get the jacket off while Angeal removed his boots. All of his clothes were perfectly fitted, barely any extra cloth for the simplest tasks like rolling up a sleeve. Luckily, his pants were a slight exception, and Angeal pushed the fabric up to his knee before hissing.
The leg wasn’t just broken. It was cracked, like ceramic, like a doll, across the man’s skin. How is that possible?
“Everything good?” Zack asked.
Angeal shook his head before rolling the pant leg back down. “His leg will need extra attention when we get there.”
He nodded before returning to his search, but there was nothing. The rest of him was fine, the rest of him felt natural. There were too many questions. Far too many questions. How could the only things wrong with him be his ribs and his inhuman leg? How could anyone survive such a fate?
The only chance their questions could be answered, was in Midgar.
But Midgar came with its own set of problems after arrival. The first task medical conducted was changing the man into a hospital gown, removing all of his dirt filled black clothing and immediately sending them away once completed. Then medical staff treated the man’s ribs, wrapping his chest in a thin but flexible cast to retain his breathing. He nearly awoke during the procedure, but staff immediately put him under anesthesia to keep him controlled and asleep. Then they placed ice packs above and around his wounds. However, one injury baffled every doctor in Midgar. They sent him to R&D for treatment of his cracked leg. And of course, the only lab equipped to handle such unknown issues, as it had with hundreds of monsters and experiments, was Doctor Hojo’s. His team, considering the brittle failure of the limb, reluctantly decided that a cast of super glue and acrylic epoxy may solidify the wound and prevent crack growth, but healing it wasn’t an option.
Zack, because he found this John Doe, stayed with him through all procedures possible, and even managed to annoy Hojo into letting him and his mentor into the lab. Zack was sitting next to the operation bed, his eyes attentive but tired as they continuously scanned the strange man’s body. Angeal was standing in the corner of the room, and clicked off his phone as he finished his conversation.
“He’s on his way. He’ll be here in five minutes,” the larger man relayed to his apprentice.
“Hopefully this guy’s awake by then,” Zack mumbled softly. “The anesthesia should wear off any minute now.”
Angeal turned his gaze to the many beeping and churning machines the man was hooked up to. “Any identification updates?”
Zack shook his head. “No ID, no phone, and no one in Icicle Village has called to claim him.” He huffed in defeat. “At this point, Hojo’s itching to take DNA samples.”
“With that cracked leg, I can almost forgive him.” The mentor nodded in understanding before noticing the man’s fingers begin to twitch. “It doesn’t seem like it’s coming to that though.”
They watched him silently for a few more minutes, his hands closing and opening, his toes flexing and releasing, the wincing on his face when he tried to move his right foot. Slowly, he opened his eyes, a disoriented blur remaining through the half open lids. He groaned softly as he tried to adjust his body.
Zack immediately stood next to the man and hushed him softly, “Hey, hey, it’s okay…”
Then realization came to his eyes and he stiffened in panic, scanning the bright white room with his slit pupils, now completely aware of everything around him, trying to fight the effects of the chemicals that had just kept him asleep. He stared in alarm at the young black haired boy, his pupils expanding and contracting in struggling focus.
“Really,” Zack tried to explain, consoling this odd man like he would a child, “It’s okay. We got you help. We’re in a hospital in Midgar.”
The worry vanished from his eyes as he analyzed both soldiers. Then a clear memory passed through the man’s mind and he tried to speak, his raspy voice still only a whisper. “You saved me…”
“Of course we did,” Zack explained with the slightest cocky hint to his tone before returning to calm and caution. “We’re not just gonna leave you there.”
“Thank you…” His voice was innocent, tired. It seemed like he wanted to say more, but he silenced, continuing to scan the room.
“Can you move your arms?”
He nodded slowly, lifting them level with his shoulders before dropping them back down with much more speed than they expected.
Angeal gave a small grunt in approval. “Good. Can you sit up?”
He placed his hands behind him and pushed his upper body from the bed with the same speed, and winced slightly.
Zack gave an apologetic look. “That’s gotta be the ribs.”
“You won’t be able to walk yet. Just relax,” Angeal explained when the man tried to shift his legs off of the bed, who then stopped at the instruction. “Can you talk? What’s your name?”
“It’s Cloud…” He wheezed before a beep made him turn to the machines at his side, then he glanced between the wires attached to the metal to the wires attached to himself.
“What’s your full name?”
“Just…Cloud…” His eyes squinted in confusion and he tilted his head. “What are those…?”
They followed his sight.
“That’s just a heart rate monitor, man,” Zack explained with the slightest confusion, but he watched the realization hit Cloud as he came to one himself. “You’re probably still in shock after what happened. We can’t blame you.”
He only gripped his light blue hospital gown with crossed brows. A pause waved through the room as the man tried to regulate his breathing. After a moment, he asked, “Where are my clothes…?”
“They were sent for cleaning. They’ll probably be back within an hour or two.”
He glared down at his replacement in disgust before twisting his expression to acceptance. Then he glanced at the mirror, another pause before a strained response. “Who’s watching us…?”
Both soldiers glanced at each other before one tried to answer.
“It could be anyone,” Zack explained. “Probably just a lab tech. They won’t bother you.”
He nodded softly.
“Can you answer some of our questions, Cloud?”
He gave a confused shift of his shoulders. “I can try… Everything’s blurry… and my throat...” He trailed off as he brought a hand to the front of his neck and rubbed the muscles there tenderly. Despite all the questions he was asking, each word struggled through his body.
Zack and Angeal nodded to each other before the mentor responded. “Just rest for now. No need to push yourself.”
But just as he finished, and the slightest relief seeped into Cloud’s expression, the sliding door opened with a beep, and the silver general stood in its wake, his silver hair and striking black uniform as perfect as always. All three of them turned to face him, Angeal about to greet his old friend when the patient suddenly launched out of the bed and kneeled before the silver First Class, ignoring the pain from his shattered leg and willing his shaking to halt. He faced the floor, not daring to look into the other’s slit eyes. The taller man took a small step back in bewilderment.
“My prince,” Cloud addressed in the most powerful, assertive voice they heard him muster since the cave, as if truly before a court of the olden days. “It’s good to see you are well.”
Was all of this some kind of elaborate ploy by some overly obsessed fanboy? Sephiroth only raised a brow at the absurd action before giving a dirty look to the two soldiers. Angeal and Zack were too busy sharing frustrated ‘I don’t know’ shrugs to stop the situation or address the general.
“You may not know,” The blonde continued, “But your mother would be proud to see what you’ve become.”
Sephiroth sighed before returning to the stern demeanor he was known for. “I don’t know what you’ve read, but nothing in those ‘fan updates’ are true. Now please get back on the bed.”
He followed the order immediately, and only showed a reaction to his pain when he held a hand to his ribs and gripped tightly at his right leg. “I speak the truth, My prince. Your mother would give anything to see you now.”
What is with the obsession with his mother? Crossing his arms at the man, he was now convinced found the most realistic pair of contacts just to annoy him. The silver general swallowed a groan before challenging, “If you claim to know my mother, what was her name?”
The blonde stared at him, his eyes reflecting Sephiroth’s like a perfect mirror, as his pupils expanded and contracted quickly. “I believe here, she was called… J-e-n-o-v-a…” He spoke the name slowly, as if reading it for the first time. “Yes, Jenova.”
Now the silver general tensed. His eyes widened, his heart pounding in his ears from the sound of the name. “Yes…” was all he mumbled, shock claiming his throat.
He nodded, “How are you feeling?”
The new bizarre question had him shake his head. “What?”
“Are you satisfied here?”
Okay, this was not going as expected. “No,” he tried to shift the topic back as he started to approach the odd man, “What do you know about my mother?”
He paused and seemed to be lost in thought before he responded. “She was a queen, of more than you know.”
“Well well…” A new voice cut off the silver general before he could respond as the door opened once again, a black haired scientist with black glasses entered the room without even glancing in the general’s direction. “Glad to see you’re awake and well,” he purred in his slimy voice.
The look of otherworldly hatred on Sephiroth’s face did not go unnoticed by the patient. “Hojo,” he seethed, “I was in the middle of questioning him.”
“Don’t you have a meeting soon?”
“Stop checking my schedule. You shouldn’t have access-”
The scientist simply waved the general off as if speaking to a low level recruit.
“I will not answer your questions before my prince’s,” The patient stated coldly.
Hojo gave the blonde an intrigued look, the gears in his mind and the knowledge unknown to the soldiers stirring within. Usually this tossing aside would annoy him, but he found himself hiding a grin. This was more than a fanboy, from the eyes alone. “That’s fine,” He answered, genuinely surprising the soldiers around him, “I’ll return later, then.” The scientist swiftly left the chamber, but both the patient and the general felt the eyes of the demon dripping on them.
Sephiroth looked to the patient, and saw the same thoughts running in his head. “Nevermind. I’ll ask later.”
“Do you hate him?” Cloud questioned simply.
Sephiroth only nodded, absolute disgust and malice in his gaze at the one way glass, but he had no idea what that nod would bring.
This man was different. This ‘Cloud’, as he was named by his queen, would kill to protect her wish without hesitation. Her son’s happiness was her greatest wish, and what was the life of anyone that caused such blatant hatred? One greasy doctor? One rich commander in chief? A witch in red? A bull in green? A crimson competition? Nothing. They were all nothing, not even opponents as the Cetra were. He was her weapon, and he would lead his prince to her as well as carry away the burdens of his prince through the gates of Hell himself. He had to play along for now, adapt to this evolved world, before taking action for the sake of his prince. For Sephiroth.