23/08/2013

Thank you to everyone who read, if you reviewed, love you, if you didn't... love you less :P

Title: A Mother's Love
Chapter: 10
Author: Jade Tatsu

Tifa looked up at the sky. The stars were so clear tonight and she could feel the temperature plummeting from where she sat near the well.

She had needed this and had crept out, coming here to just quietly look up at the stars.

"Cloud," the name left her lips like a whisper of air and the brunette frowned. Why had she said his name?

He'd disappeared at the beginning of winter, with his mum, the same day that the Mansion burned to the ground. No one had outright said that Mrs. Strife was responsible, but no one had any doubt that she was. And by association her son was guilty as well. Speculation was running rife through the village as to what had happened, especially when Shinra sent one of their First Class SOLDIERs to investigate, and not just any SOLDIER, they'd sent one of the Generals.

On the day of the fire there had been concern, but when the sun set that concern had turned to accusation and by the time the General arrived, the entire town was sure she was guilty. Yet they didn't say that. And Tifa wasn't so sure.

Cloud had been… well, she couldn't call him a friend but he was one of the few people in the village she liked.

He was always so serious and he never tried to impress her. In fact, she was more than a little bit impressed with him. Zangan had looked at him once, assessing Cloud when his mother had asked the martial artist if he could teach her boy some moves and he'd shaken his head. He never gave a reason why he would not teach Cloud but he had told her, later that day, that she should watch him. Watch the way he moves, and turns, see the way the land responds to him. And she had. Cloud had moved with a grace that left her breathless and Tifa had never had the courage to ask him where he had learned that.

And then there was his wolf. Everyone in Nibelhiem knew the Nibel Wolves, knew they ran in packs and knew how to defend themselves from one. Yet Cloud was different. He raised one as a pup, taught it to be loyal to him and ran with the wolf all over the mountain. She was more than a little bit jealous of that.

Her lips creased in a smile as she realised what was wrong. She missed Cloud. She never spoke with him, never interacted with him much but now that he was gone she missed him. He'd been a constant in her life and now he was missing.

He was the only one who knew the truth about her Mum, who had helped her with the grief and she'd never really gotten to say thank you. The way life in the village was, she probably would never see him again, and would never get to thank him. He was wherever he was, pursued by Shinra and she was… stuck. Her father had her entire life planned and would no doubt be picking out who he expected her to marry shortly. She'd be lucky if she got any notification more advanced than the hand fasting. And after that she'd be expected to sleep with him, and they'd be married as soon as it was confirmed she was pregnant.

That wouldn't happen soon, she was only ten years old but it would be soon enough, four, five years at the most, probably soon after she bled.

Except she didn't want that. She wanted more than that. She didn't know exactly what she wanted, but she knew it was to be more than the wife of someone in a backwater village. And Cloud… for all that Cloud was eleven years old, he gave her the feeling that it was possible, that anything was possible if you just reached for it.

Tifa closed her eyes, bowing her head. She hadn't reached though. That was another part of the problem. She hadn't reached out at all despite knowing that he probably wanted a friend, despite knowing that Cloud was the best tracker the village had. Why hadn't she reached out? Was she afraid? Was the example of Cloud's Mum, Raisa Strife, who despite being a mountain woman, was one who had remained independent, who had not been forced to remarry…
Savagely Tifa wiped away the tears that leaked from her eyes.

She was hurt and she was jealous and she was trapped.

"Why did you leave Cloud?" the words were whispered and Tifa looked back up at the stars.

If only she could escape somehow. She smiled wryly to herself. If there was any chance… any chance at all, then she'd take it. She owed herself that much at least.

She owed her memory of Cloud that much.

Sephiroth looked at the few possessions laid out on the table before him. They were the possessions of a housewife. There was nothing special about them. No notes, no books, nothing that was incriminating yet they were all that was left of the Housekeeper of the Nibelheim Mansion, Raisa Strife. The Turks had brought them hoping that it would help in the investigation.

There was nothing of interest to him. The artefacts that remained were nothing special and Sephiroth felt that the only possession of importance the woman had was her son.

The boy and his wolf would be older now. Old enough to travel over the mountains. Old enough to have helped out in the village and the villagers had confirmed that. They had told him some stories of the boy. The way he knew the mountains and the way his wolf was always with him. Sephiroth could well image it from the one picture he possessed. It was a peaceful photograph. Cloud… It was such a perfect name for the boy. Light and airy yet with his surname, it spoke of strength and without ever seeing the boy in the flesh, Sephiroth knew the lad was strong. Looking into those blue eyes, that almost seemed to glow without mako, Sephiroth felt at peace and he could stare for hours. Not that he could get away with that.

Angeal had caught him at one of the rare times he took the photo out. Sephiroth thought the other man would snarl or think him weak but if anything the knowledge seemed to comfort the other man. It was as if some concern or other was laid to rest. Sephiroth had never asked Angeal what it was but the silver haired man was careful that he wasn't seen again with the picture. As always it rode close to his heart secured in the lining of his jacket. And even with the boy and his mother on the run, it gave him a sense of comfort and serenity every time he thought about them.

Which was more than the situation did. They thought they knew what had happened. Or at least they had a working theory.

Hojo had been suspiciously quiet when presented with the letter which was confirmation enough that something had been in the Mansion. Sephiroth had done his best to verify the claims and had managed to pull up a personal file on the dear Professor. It came as a bit of a surprise to find out that Hojo really had been married. Shinra recorded that much and the woman's name really was Lucrecia nee Crescent. There had been one old picture of her and while it was also clear that she had been an employee of Shinra, her records had been wiped. She was a beautiful woman. The picture showed long brown hair with rich brown eyes and a classic facial structure. While Sephiroth was not overly experienced in matters of the heart, he could only conclude that their relationship had been a meeting of minds. He really didn't want to know what else might have been there.

That much of the note was true but despite what else it said, they did not believe that the creature had eaten the woman but it had definitely taken her, and most likely dictated the letter. They were assuming it was the creature with the five claws and nothing with claws like that could write. There were still anomalies in their theory though. There had been three calibres of bullet and when he'd been tracking them he'd picked up three different sets of boot prints along with the tracks of the wolf. The scratch marks made by the wolf were far different from the scratches of that thing with five claws and he had seen nothing that could have been it on the trail. The three boot prints said that there had to be another person.

Yet no one in Nibelheim or in Rocket Town could remember seeing anyone. Rocket Town remembered Raisa Strife, her son and the wolf and the pilot, Cid Highwind had even reported that he'd taken them to Wutai. After that the woman's trail had been lost and Sephiroth had felt a pain in his heart when he'd heard that. The boy… Cloud was in danger in Wutai. There was no way that either of them could hide their blond hair, so why had they gone there? Did they have a contact? What could they do? Unfortunately, while their spies in Wutai were good, they were not that good and Sephiroth knew that even if the Wutai were to find them, they would most likely kill Raisa and Cloud and it wouldn't even generate a report, so they would never know what happened.

That thought had almost made him return to mount a winter campaign except he knew it would be stupid and Sephiroth prided himself on his intelligence. That's what worried him. Why did he care for that boy? Why did the mere thought of the child calm him down? It made him think clearer. And somehow he knew without being sure how he knew that the blond boy and his wolf were not dead. He'd feel it.

Of course none of it explained how she had gotten away from the thing with claws. Unless it had let her go? And that just lead to more questions. Their working theory was tentative and it had holes but it covered the events and that was about it. It left them with so many questions. Highwind had given them some answers and was now on probation. Hojo would tell them nothing. Both Strife's were uncontactable in Wutai and presumably would keep as far away from them as they could, which left one complete unknown who might have answers yet who was likely to be avoiding them.

Sephiroth sighed to himself, touching his fingertips to his heart as he remembered the picture and the serenity it induced in him. And all of that left one question unanswered, why had Raisa Strife wanted to go to Wutai?

He had a feeling they would find out and he knew that they wouldn't like the answer.

Cid leaned back in his chair. His cigarette hung from his mouth and his fingers grasped the edges of his glass. The bottle was on the table, about half gone. He felt mellow and that was fine with him. His house was clean, the 'Bronco was polished to an almost painful shine and he still had days left on his probation.

Probation! Ha! No matter what he'd done, Shinra knew he was the best pilot they had. They couldn't fire him. They wouldn't fire him but they sure as hell knew how to make life difficult. But he had the last laugh. He knew where everyone's stash of alcohol was so this enforced probation period was turning more into a drinking holiday. On the whole, it was rather pleasant.

The woman's words though. They had not been pleasant and he could not get them out of his mind. He'd thought about them on the flight back and finally dismissed them. But that night he'd shot bolt upright when he realised what about them was wrong.

They were the words of someone who knew. That was their tone.

They weren't the words of someone who was speculating on something. That woman, she knew something and it had been in her voice the entire time.

Of course, he hadn't told Shinra that when the troopers had come to the door. And he hadn't told that too silent, too observant silver haired freak of a SOLDIER that either though Cid suspected that the man knew something was up. There had been the slightest smile on his face when Cid had admitted to losing a bet to the kid. That much was public record so Highwind wasn't stupid enough to try to deny that. Some of the rest he had denied. Bah… Let Shinra work it out for themselves. He owed them nothing.

Though if what the woman said was true… Would they really go for space? And would they then abandon him? He was their best pilot but Cid was practical. There were always new hotshots coming in up the ranks, always some new-fangled trick or a risk that some idiot would take. He was the best, but he knew what he was doing. Those kids they didn't and they didn't care. They still had that belief they were invincible and soon enough, when the next campaign started, he knew he'd be seeing them dead.

But what if Shinra decided to go with one of them? Where did that leave him?

Oh, he knew where it left him. It left him out in the cold and worse yet… on the ground.

They couldn't. Not only was he their best pilot he was one of their best designers. They wouldn't even have the 'Bronco if it weren't for him. Not to mention those designs for the other ships. He was the reason those designs had gone beyond idea to paper. By the Planet, most of those ideas were his and he'd be darned if he just let Shinra take them away.

Cid snorted. That woman… She already knew how that would go and no matter what she was involved in she'd given him an in to that. Whatever it was, it was something to do with the war. No one went to Wutai without being involved in the war but could one mountain woman give them? How was she going to change the balance of the war?

He drained the last drops of alcohol from his glass, flicking his ciggie away. He didn't know and there was only one way to find out and that was to stay with Shinra. So he'd stay with them, no matter what she had said, but he'd watch and he'd be careful. If Shinra though they could take his planes from him… well they had another thing coming and that woman would find herself with a pilot who could take her anywhere.

Aerith paused as she placed one hand on the plant. This was so different from Midgar. Life and the Planet were all around her. The gardens were almost bursting with it and beyond the city the wilds sang to her a comforting lullaby that sent her to sleep each night. She thought it might be like Icicle Base but despite straining her memory, all she could remember of that place was a couple of images of white snow and her mother standing happily in front of a house. It didn't matter that she couldn't remember, this was paradise!

The Lifestream hummed below her senses and the best of it was that she didn't have to pretend not to hear. The people here knew she could talk to the Planet and they wanted her to. A small blonde woman had taken her aside right after she'd arrived. She'd been afraid, who wouldn't be, having been kidnapped from her bed in Midgar and dragged half way across the Planet. The woman had tried to explain things though and Aerith really couldn't remember what she had said. It didn't matter. The Planet recognised the woman and said that she was safe and that was enough for the small girl. The blonde woman had also told her that she did not need to cry for Elmyra. Her adoptive mother had been left in Midgar but she had been compensated. She wouldn't go hungry and that soothed Aerith though she'd still cried that day, for everything that was gone but the next day she'd resolved to look upon this as a new adventure.

There was no other way it could be defined. The people here were so different. Firstly there was the woman, blonde, who seemed to be the only one in a country where everyone had black hair. Wutai. And that was another surprise. She's seen the news, the papers were full of it and every single paper said that the Wutai people were savages, would hurt her if they could, were brutal and dangerous and not to be trusted. Yet the Planet trusted them. The Planet cried with them and everything she could feel showed that they were compassionate in their own way. There was a deep undertone of concern but even though she was only twelve years old she knew that was because of the War.

Which was why she was here. The blonde woman had explained to her about SOLDIERS and how they were created using Mako and bits of the Calamity, Jenova. Aerith understood that. Eleven years old or not she knew what that meant. She'd heard the Planet's cries at that and she knew it was bad. But then the woman had continued, trying to explain that she wanted to create something else, something to counter the SOLDIERs and for that she needed Aerith's help. That bit didn't make sense, even with the Planet's explanations but she'd agreed and the woman had very carefully drawn a large vial of blood. She'd been a bit dizzy after that, but a good meal of weird food and a night of rest and she had felt fine the next day.

Her hosts had appeared happier that day as well and Aerith was a bit puzzled as to why… Until she worked out that they had been afraid she'd say no. But the Planet had wanted this so why would she say no? She'd told them that and after some confused looks a man with a pointy beard had laughed and had again thanked her. He'd asked her then to tell him anything the Planet said.

That was one of the weirdest yet nicest things about being here. They knew she could talk to the Planet and they wanted her to. She'd always had to hide it in the past but they'd actually set aside of a bit of time for her each day so that she could roam the gardens and talk to the Planet. And every day she was reminded this was not Midgar.

Midgar… It was dark and noisy and smelly and she missed it. It was full of life, but only people and they were interesting. The people here were interesting but they were different and she missed the routines of the past. The song of the Planet had comforted her but it could not fill the ache inside and after she'd been in this new place for a month the blonde woman, who had introduced herself as Raisa had seen that and had offered her hand with a small smile and lead her through the corridors of the house.

Aerith had been surprised when they'd ended up in a small room with a small man sitting at the front and two children kneeling before him, fidgeting slightly but paying attention. From that day forward she'd been going to school. It was not what she expected. Mornings were given over to classes where they sat and learned and they learned everything! They were focusing on learning language at the moment, since she didn't speak Wutai and that seemed to be going well. The blond boy, Cloud had been able to hold simple conversations with the other girl in the class, Yuffie and they provided her with practice in their language. But they also learned history, etiquette, maths, science, biology, healing, physics, flower arranging, politics and diplomacy. Language they did each day, and the other classes rotated. In the afternoons, they did other classes and Aerith didn't like these ones but she did find out why the other two paid such close attention in science class. The afternoons were more physical classes where they learned how to move silently, how to wield a sword and shuriken, how to fire guns and fight hand to hand, as well as how to create small explosives and smoke bombs, and how to use materia. That class she liked because she could feel the Planet through the little green orbs and her teachers had been amazed at how quickly she picked up those skills, though Cloud wasn't too far behind her there and he was already fast and strong and able to wield a sword that appeared far too large for him. He was also the best with a gun, but he'd shrugged off praise, saying that someone had already taught him so it wasn't his skill. Each day, late in the afternoon, when they were tired, the weapons teachers explained tactics and battle moves to them. Aerith didn't like that part of the day. Killing made her feel sick and the Planet tried to comfort her.

She knew death was merely part of the cycle and not to be feared. You simply returned to the Planet, the Planet that had created you in the first place but the act of forcing something to go back to the Planet… That made her ill. The other two children seemed to recognise that and Cloud comforted as best he could, telling her that if she had to kill, she should leave the final blow to him. He would do it for her.

It was a child's promise and his blue eyes had almost glowed when he said it but she believed him and the Planet somehow hummed and Aerith had cried again while he comforted her. After that things didn't seem so bad. This was a new adventure for her and things were happy. Sure she had to provide some blood every now and then and she could almost feel echoes of herself in the distance, but she also had friends, something she had never had before, and she never had to hide when she was talking with the Planet. She missed Midgar with the press of people and the never ending noise and motion but as the seasons turned and she settled into the new routine the calm serenity of Wutai with its odd overtone of tension was fast becoming home.

Shears sighed and shook his head. Another fight.

It didn't used to be like this and it shouldn't be like this but he knew exactly when things changed. And he knew exactly who to blame.

That woman!

That blonde woman who'd appeared in Wutai like an apparition and had the gall to go straight to Godo's Winter Palace and from there… And from there he wasn't entirely sure what she had done. Oh he knew exactly what she had done, she had saved the Lady Kasumi and Prince Kichirou with the use of some simple material and then she had made demands on the Lord of Wutai, demands Godo saw fit to grant. So Avalanche went from honoured ally to the doghouse all because of the say of one woman, one woman who wasn't even Wutai!

The most infuriating bit was that they should have been there. They had the same materia, they could have performed the same service but the chance had passed them by. If he was honest with himself, they had been too sure of the war, too sure that Wutai would be against Shinra and would thus support them. Well, Wutai was still against Shinra, but Wutai had just recognised that they were a sovereign nation and Avalanche was what…

If Shears was honest with himself he knew exactly what Avalanche were. Their cause was honourable and noble, there was no doubt about that, but they were just a bunch of riff-raff, cobbled together anarchists who would use any reason to fight against Shinra. Some of them genuinely wanted to save the planet. Elfie did, though she also wanted revenge. Fuhito… Shears shuddered… Fuhito was useful but he didn't care about the Planet, he wanted Shinra's science labs laid out before him. For the rest it was a bit of a mix. They were an amalgamation, brought together and held together by their hatred of Shinra and when something disturbed that… when some new element was added to the mix, they came apart at the seams, separating like oil and water to follow their own paths.

He rubbed his temples. Godo's demands hadn't been that high or that unrealistic. The Lord of Wutai had initially only agreed to let them on Wutai land while they were helpful and while Shears liked to think they were helping with the war, that was mostly Wutai forces and Godo had seemed happy with that. Until that woman came with her materia and what..? It was hard to believe that one woman could change so much.

Shears snorted to himself. Elfie was one woman so he shouldn't be surprised. It was just difficult to think that one unenhanced woman could do as much as the blonde had. In a few short months of winter she had changed Wutai's outlook completely. At first it hadn't been clear what she was doing and then they had caught rumours, in between their grumblings against the altered policies of the Lord of Wutai. Then they had seen the first Warriors practicing and those rumours had coalesced into a brutal reality. Wutai now possessed SOLDIERs. And that secret was being kept on the highest levels. Avalanche only knew because they were still invited to the palace on occasion, otherwise like everyone else, they would not know.

Their relationship with Wutai had already been strained. It had been strained the moment Godo had demanded that they kidnap people from Midgar but they'd done it, though they had had no idea what the Lord of Wutai wanted with a brat. He'd seemed pleased when the girl arrived and she had been shuffled off into another section of the Palace and that was the last Shears had seen or heard from her. But the knowledge that Wutai now had SOLDIERs, that had caused a fight between Godo, Elfie and Fuhito that Shears still thought he could hear ringing in his ears.

The Lord of Wutai had admitted that they now had enhanced troops but had been deathly quiet in his promise that if they let Shinra know then he would find a way to obliterate them. On a tactical level Shears could agree. Winter was almost over and the war would begin again in earnest. Not that it wasn't fought in winter, but the winter campaign was nowhere near as vicious as the spring, summer and even autumn campaigns. And Wutai planned to release their enhanced troops about midway into the Spring Campaign. Shinra would be thrown and if Wutai was lucky, they might be able to take out one of Shinra's vaunted Firsts. That would be a victory of mammoth proportions. Tactically, Elfie and Fuhito could admit that but it would be a victory that Avalanche played no part in.

That's what was grating on them or at least on Elfie. Fuhito was fuming that Lord Godo had simply and quietly refused point blank to tell them how they had obtained the technology to enhance and further, he had refused to tell them the process. He claimed he didn't know. Fuhito thought he was lying but Shears thought that Godo was telling the truth on that. The Lord of Wutai might vaguely know what was involved, he'd have had to provide the materials but he probably knew nothing more than that. But he had also refused to tell them who had given Wutai the knowledge.

It wasn't hard for Avalanche to work out who had though. No matter how well hidden the woman and her child were, they were not invisible and it was hard to hide hair that blonde in a nation of black hair. They'd never managed to get the woman alone and it was only through the gossip of the Palace staff and making inferences from various actions that they had managed to piece together what had happened. Somehow that woman knew the method to make enhanced SOLDIERs and she'd traded that method for sanctuary. That was the only way Shears could describe it.

Her son was educated alongside the Princess Yuffie, along with the girl they had grabbed from Midgar and the woman was assigned to the Lady Kasumi's personal staff but she barely spent any time in the women's wing of the Palace. The woman was invisible to the rest of Wutai and she would be invisible to Shinra but not to Avalanche. Shears wondered how long she could hide from Shinra, just as he wondered who exactly she was. The files they had stolen over time from Shinra didn't exactly list many women working in the science department in positions anything more important than secretary. So how had she learned to enhance humans? Where had she learned to enhance humans? Especially as the one time Shears had gotten a glimpse of her, she looked like some country bumpkin of a woman. Rural… really rural was the impression he had gotten, which was completely at odds with her actions and abilities.

Shinra would be searching for her the instant they found out about Wutai's enhanced troops but Lord Godo seemed determined to keep her safe. A completely understandable policy all things considered, though how safe she would be remained to be seen. It was odd though. They had managed to talk to a few of Wutai's enhanced troops and they never mentioned the woman, they only said the treatments were delivered by someone they had dubbed Mother. Did they not know it was a blonde woman who gave them the enhancements? Had Godo kept that even from his troops? Shears shook his head. It mattered but it was something he didn't have the answers for. Wutai's enhanced SOLDIERs may not know who Mother was but they well knew exactly what they meant for the future of Wutai and they were fanatically loyal both to their country and to the woman who had given them that power.

Elfie had been incised but she had calmed down as the weeks had passed and had tried to find a way to work with the Lord of Wutai. Godo had seemed to appreciate that and the two of them had worked out some missions to be pursued in the spring. Avalanche would not fight much on Wutai soil though. That much had changed. Godo seemed to want to push whatever advantage he gained with having enhanced SOLDIERs and wanted to push more to the mainland. Avalanche had no argument against that. They could not take down Shinra merely by fighting on Wutai so they had had no recourse but to go along with the suggestions from the Lord of Wutai.

While Elfie had taken that news rather calmly Fuhito had been angry. It had taken their combined abilities to calm him down though his accusation towards Elfie, that she was only so calm because she was still stronger than all but the most enhanced of the Wutai SOLDIERs had bitten deep. By the Planet, why couldn't he keep his mouth shut? Did he not see how much she liked him? Shears could not remember ever being so angry at their scientist but he'd let it pass, because it did hold a note of truth.

He'd instead tried to push the conversation around towards things they could do. The list of things had been surprisingly short and most of it had been things suggested by the Lord of Wutai. Somehow they'd patched things up but Shears was not looking forward to Spring. Then everything could so easily come crashing down around them. So much depended on how Shinra reacted. Godo seemed to know that but even he did not know what would happen.

Shears sighed. He needed to spend less time thinking about the past and more about the future… Except the future was clouded and he doubted even that blonde woman knew what she had done. Oh but she would. He would make sure of that!

Vincent sheltered under a tree as the snow fell. He probably should have found some place to wait the winter out but the woman's letter had driven him to keep going, to keep searching for Lucrecia. Lucrecia… beautiful Lucrecia, forever preserved in his memory as the woman she had been, rather than the woman she became. The sharpshooter had had a long moment of anger when he read the woman's letter. She had known that Lucrecia was alive and she had deliberately not told him until she was out of reach.

He could have slipped into Rocket Town easily enough but even as he'd thought about that, he knew it would be pointless. So Raisa hadn't told him until after they parted ways. But she had told him. That was important, and she had done her best to describe the place where Lucrecia was hiding. The description wasn't much but it was better than nothing. "High in the mountains, in a cave beside a lake that looks like a crater." That might describe quite a few places… It might not even be on this continent but he was content. He'd find it eventually.

Chaos hadn't even objected too much to his gallivanting about all winter but the beast had been quieter since he'd seen that woman and her son. Vincent had tried asking but the creature had been silent… well after it had laughed and garbled something out about the Planet's Butterfly. The creature was interested though but it didn't want to find Lucrecia for the same reasons Vincent did and the former Turk could feel himself unconsciously holding back every day he searched. He wasn't sure he could control Chaos. And he didn't know what resources Lucrecia might have on hand to protect her.

It was like one of those questions that they asked all Turks. The moral questions. The gunman has their weapon to the head of the hostage? What do you do? For a Turk, the answer was simple, so long as the hostage is not the President, you shoot them both. And if it was the President, you shoot yourself. But he wasn't Turk enough to shoot Lucrecia.

That realisation had brought Chaos' attention and the creature had laughed and laughed and laughed. Then it had prodded through his thoughts until it was satisfied that the reaction was real. And then had laughed some more. In some ways Chaos was so shockingly simple, in others the creature confused him still. He wasn't like the others, Gilian Beast, Death Gigas and Hellmasker. They were simple expressions of instinct. Chaos was at once both more elemental and more complex and Vincent knew that the creature could hear the Planet when it so desired. Except for the moment the Planet had been quiet.

Chaos seemed to accept that as normal but Vincent was used to the whisper and it was odd. All through the time he slept the Planet had whispered to Chaos and he'd grown accustomed to the murmur under his hearing. It felt wrong with it gone. :Right at the moment, the Planet is not focused on me.: That was all the explanation Chaos had seen fit to provide and despite being absorbed with the problem at hand, Vincent had wondered what the Planet was fixated on.

The Creature had been feeling more genial at the time and had given him an answer. :The Butterfly.: The answer of course made no sense but it was all the answer Chaos would give and eventually Vincent had dropped the matter. It had no bearing on his problem.

Assuming he could find Lucrecia and the former Turk was confident that it was only a matter of time, how did he control Chaos when he got there? The creature wanted the woman dead and wanted that almost more than he wanted anything else. Usually he'd be confident of his ability to control Chaos but not if Lucrecia was present, not unless they had an agreement but on this Chaos refused to bargain. He wanted blood and that was all he would settle for.

That left Vincent searching for an uncertain future, one he wasn't sure he could carry through but one he could not turn away from. He had to find her. He was driven to do that but once he found her… what then? Assuming he could control Chaos, where did that leave him with Lucrecia? Why was she hiding? Was she injured? What had happened?

Raisa's letter only explained a bit but it was not enough. Before he could move forward he had to know those answers but it remained to be seen if Chaos would let him find the answers. Lucrecia would talk to him, Vincent was sure of that. He just wasn't sure he wanted to hear her answers. But hearing those answers was the only way to gain peace so he was trapped. The future was uncertain and until it was resolved, he could not move forward.

Vincent closed red eyes as he settled down to sleep. Outside the canopy of the tree, snow continued to fall but it was the late winter snow and would melt soon enough. He'd keep searching then because if necessary he'd search every valley and mountain until he found that cave… and then once he found Lucrecia… then could the future be decided.

Third Class SOLDIER Zack Fair blinked groggily. If he got back to Shinra… When he got back to Shinra he was so going to find whoever had written that manual on hostage situations and hurt them. Keep calm and negotiate?

Oh yeah! Right!

Like that was happening.

The people who'd captured him were in no mood to negotiate. They were in no mood for anything except causing him pain. Fuhito… Zack recognised at least one of his captors. Fuhito was probably the most sadistic of the lot. The demented AVALANCHE Scientist caused pain but he was so calm when he visited and every time he came there was a small smile on his face and a dull glint in his eyes.

Zack hated that expression. And the bastard even had the gall to explain what he was trying to do. It was the same old information that anyone with half a brain would have worked out but Zack forced himself to listen, just in case the man said something he shouldn't, just in case some of the information he learned here might be useful to Shinra.

AVALANCHE didn't have enhanced SOLDIERS. They had Elfie but she was one woman, and despite the fact she could face Sephiroth, Zack knew with absolute certainty she couldn't face Sephiroth, Angeal and Genesis at the same time. AVALANCHE like Wutai were fighting a rear-guard action they couldn't hope to win. But they continued to fight and they had captured him, he reflected ruefully.

That's what Fuhito was trying to do. At least what he said he was trying to do. He was trying to learn the secrets to create SOLDIERS. It didn't matter how much Zack screamed, it didn't matter what they did, the Third Class SOLDIER was almost certain they wouldn't be able to find the answer from him because enhancements is not truly what they wanted. What they really wanted was a way of copying Sephiroth and no amount of experimentation on him would help them with that. All he could do was scream. And he had. He had screamed and screamed and screamed until his throat was raw, until the Mako in his system just could not keep up and he'd been left gasping and heaving in pain as Fuhito continued to work.

The bastard had sniggered at him then. Like he did every time and Zack had been forced to watch with wide eyes as the needle came at him. It glowed and he was so used to the burn of Mako now that he barely twitched. With everything else that the megalomaniac had done if he twitched other things would hurt.

He didn't know how much Mako had been introduced to his system. It was hard to keep track of it and there were days when his vision was blurry and he heard things that were just not there; the sound of children, laughing as they ran on wooden floors, the soft hum of voices chatting idly in the late winter sun and the occasional shouted command of a sergeant to his troops was accompanied by the crisp sound of heels moving in unison to salute. Those were thing that were not there, but there were days when Zack swore he heard them and he embraced those sounds, no matter where they were coming from. Anything was better than listening to his own screaming or laboured breathing.

And anything was better to keep his attention in the long moments between the times when Fuhito was there. They stretched for eternity, hours, days, Zack didn't know. There was no light here except when the AVALANCHE Scientist was there. All he could do was wait, testing the bonds that held him and plan for what he would do once he was free.

Because there was one thing Zack Fair knew with absolute certainty; he was not going to die here.

And that's a wrap! A nice review of the thoughts of a lot of people who aren't getting a lot of time in chapter.

This will be the last chapter for a little while. I want to finish writing the second part completely before I start posting so I apologise in advance. While it's kind of a cliffhanger, I think for most of the characters I've left off at a good spot. They are settled in Wutai and so safe.

PS: thank you for the reviews that pointed out some of the ages were wrong. I genuinely thought that Zack was a few years older than Cloud. I've demoted him, made Aerith older, and Tifa younger but I still need Zack to be a SOLDIER, so he is.

Thanks for reading everyone,

Jade