They really were back in a month. Specifically, thirty-five days. There was a story behind the last four days, apparently, but Luxiere hadn't gotten around to telling that one yet. He was too busy repeating this one. Again.

"And then, I put everything I had into my Revive. Which, y'know, I had linked to an-"

"All." The rest of the cafeteria said in unison. Cloud suspected he hadn't been Luxiere's only audience for this one.

"Who's tellin' this story, anyway? So, that worked, but it kind of worked on everything. Even that mutated behemoth, so-"

It had taken an embarrassingly long time for Cloud to comprehend there wasn't going to be a war. At first, it was utter chaos, with all the SOLDIERs back. They had a lot of crazy stories to tell, especially Luxiere. They were trying out new moves they'd learned, and new ideas for materia. Honestly, it was like taking all the noise and excitement from the returning sections' patrol and ramping it up with about ten Hypers. Because everything in Wutai had been new, and SOLDIER spent all their time coming up with new ways to fight killer monsters, it would seem.

"So Luxiere took that bazooka that the AVALANCHE guy dropped, and aimed it at-"

"Who's tellin' this story anyway? So, after the behemoth was encased in ice, I picked up this bazooka-"

After Cloud had asked Zack for the third time when they would be deployed again, Sephiroth had taken him aside to a quiet room, and explained that there wasn't a war. The Turks were staying behind to tie up loose ends, and SOLDIER was doing the Turk's job until they came back. This had been a mission, like killing monsters near towns was a mission, it was over and there was no war.

Cloud was often confused, but he wasn't stupid. This was just so different than before, he couldn't comprehend it. A lot of people and situations hadn't turned out like he'd expected, but he mostly chalked that up to not remembering. This though, he had been sure of. He was still unsure of his age, but he wasn't that young. There wasn't time for there to be a long war, before…

"So after the lab room blew sky high, Luxiere-"

"Who's tellin' this story, anyway?"

ooOOOoo

They all had escaped completely unscathed. They were incredibly proud of not having a scratch on any of them. Except for Angeal Hewley. He had gotten a nasty gash on his arm, when he had guarded Zack from an incoming projectile. The other SOLDIERs had a lot of fun ribbing the man about ruining their perfect record. They weren't too hard on him, he was their superior officer after all, and he had been defending Zack. If Cloud was some kind of strange mascot who could beat them up, then Zack was the utterly beloved rookie. Zack had spent a lot of time complaining they hadn't let him do anything dangerous, whenever Luxiere got started on another story.

Slowly, the Turks trickled back to Shinra Tower. Cloud had taken to spending a bit more time around the secretaries again. They talked more than the SOLDIERs, but it was less frenetic. They also had the low-down on what was happening around the company. Shinra breathed a collective sigh of relief when the Department of Administrative Research once more became capable of doing their job. Only a Turk knew everything they were responsible for. But one thing everyone knew, was when things got mixed up or short-handed, Turks picked up the slack.

As it was, Genesis was doing Lazard's job, while he did what used to be Scarlet's. Tuesti was doing Heideggar's job, and Cloud wasn't sure who was running Urban Development at the moment. Sephiroth was liaising between SOLDIER and Genesis. According to the frazzled First, Lazard could take his job back anytime; no one in SOLDIER wanted to be the Director.

Until the company recovered from losing so many Directors, it would be a little mixed up around the place, was the general consensus. Still, with the Turks back, some semblance of normalcy returned to floor sixty-three. The SOLDIERs would be able to take a vacation, finally, in shifts. They had been battle-ready for the better part of two years, and it was showing. They were in high spirits, but worn out in a way that had little to do with physical exhaustion.

Men from all three sections started to drift off; going home, playing tourist, whatever they did in their spare time; Cloud wouldn't know. The Firsts stayed, and so did Zack. With the floor quieter, Cloud took up his previous occupation of following Zack around.

"Hey Cloud, you coming to visit Angeal with me?" Zack smiled at him, but there was a strained look to it.

Visit Angeal? Cloud nodded. That was a weird way to talk about training, but...when they got to the Firsts' office, Angeal was there, slowly working on the paperwork neither Sephiroth or Genesis had time for these days. His arm was wrapped up, and in a sling around his neck.

"Angeal!" Zack exclaimed, and proceeded to glomp the man. For all that it was exuberant, no part of the man's injured side was even slightly jostled in the process.

"Zackary." Angeal smiled. "What are you two up to, today?"

Cloud watched as Zack chattered away, seemingly as carefree as ever, and Angeal listened and ignored the paperwork. Their mouths were smiling, but their eyes were strained. Zack was worried, and Angeal...didn't feel well.

SOLDIERs didn't get sick, unless Hojo was around. Cloud eyed the bandaged arm, but Zack and Angeal didn't bring it up, and so neither did Cloud.

ooOOOoo

The SOLDIERs had all come back, and the Firsts worked out a schedule which Genesis called "The first test of the actual intent of the program." Cloud thought it was a little long-winded, but was probably missing some history there, so forgave him the lame title. The SOLDIERs would now go off in groups of two to five, depending on the threat level, and clear out monsters around towns and along the roads.

Wait. "The SOLDIER program was made as a...monster deterrent?" Cloud asked, disbelieving.

"So we were told when we joined. Rufus Shinra has promised that's what we'll remain. I have found some truly horrifying plans that the old President and Hojo had, and let me tell you-"

"Genesis." Angeal interrupted the rant. "Not in front of the children."

This, of course, set off a series of complaints from Cloud and Zack, and then Genesis joined in. Later, Cloud realized, they had never gotten back to the "horrifying plans". Angeal could be rather sneaky, when he wanted. Too bad Cloud could already guess what some of them were. Or would have turned out to be. He was incredibly unclear on what was going to happen next. There had been no war, and now there was no Hojo in the picture. Did that mean there wouldn't be a Nibelheim incident? Did that mean Cloud could stop, or would he have to spend the rest of his life trying and failing to kill Sephiroth? That last thought made him feel rather ill. Cloud reminded himself that once he could manage a sword fight, he would actually succeed. For some reason, this didn't bring him any comfort.

Zack didn't train with Angeal anymore. At first, the man had watched and instructed, while Zack tried to do as told. Then, Angeal would just talk quietly about things while Zack sat and listened. Then one day, Angeal Hewley collapsed while walking slowly from one room to another.

Cloud wouldn't have done it for anyone else, but Zack was upset, so Cloud went with him to the infirmary. The one attached to the Science Department, made especially for SOLDIER. Angeal was laying back against a lot of pillows, sleeping. He didn't look like he had Stigma, but that was really the only positive thing Cloud could think of. Zack sat by the man and held his hand, and didn't say anything at all.

There was a woman, white lab coat, with glasses. "I'm going through the files as quickly as I can, but this morass Hojo left me with is-"

"We understand, and you've really done an excellent job, all things considered, but is there anything else you can do, besides look for more of the research?" Genesis was trying to sound diplomatic, but sounded just a little too strained to pull it off.

"I'm sorry, there's really not. I managed to stabilize him; he won't get any worse for weeks, maybe as long as a couple months. We have some time to figure it out." The woman said attempting to sound encouraging.

"If helping with the 'morass' Hojo left behind will free more of your time, tell us what we can do to help." Sephiroth spoke quietly, urgency in his tone.

Zack continued to not say anything, and Cloud wasn't sure what to do to help. He wouldn't be able to look through the research like the others, and being in this room, with the machines and the mako tubes, and the doctors was making Cloud dizzy, his hands were already starting to feel strange. But it was more unnatural for Zack to be so silent, so while the others did something useful, Cloud stayed by his side and tried to breathe very evenly. If their positions were reversed, Zack would probably find something pleasant to talk about, but Cloud had a hard time with that on a good day. This...was not turning out to be a good day. Cloud moved a little closer, and Zack smiled weakly, and reached out and ruffled Cloud's hair with his free hand.

"You're a good friend, Cloud." He said quietly.

Well. Maybe it was useful after all. Cloud breathed very evenly, and stayed in the infirmary.

ooOOOoo

Zack burst into Cloud's room without knocking. Cloud double-checked the placement of his bed cover. He'd put off working on the sniper rifle when Angeal got sick. It was still under the bed, partially assembled. He was only lacking a few pieces, but he could finish up later. Sephiroth was helping find a cure, and Cloud wasn't going to delay that. That was the only reason. Cloud could finish it any time.

"I got permission for you to go too!" Zack said excitedly, waving a paper triumphantly in the air.

Zack hadn't sounded that like that for a long time. Cloud grabbed the paper and inspected it. It was a standard leave paper, Aeghel's office. Cloud wasn't actually supposed to go anywhere without...oh. There were the numbers and stamp marks.

"You got this from Livea, didn't you?" Cloud asked, dryly.

Zack looked mischievous. "Maybe."

Cloud filled up Little Friend's food and water dishes, and grabbed his rucksack. "Let's mosey." Cloud smiled at Zack's amusement at the phrase. He didn't know where they were going, but anything that put Zack in a lighter humor these days was worth it.

It wasn't worth it. Zack hadn't chattered since Angeal got sick, so information took longer to get. Cloud learned that Sephiroth, Genesis, and the doctor had decided that the last key they needed to finish a cure was some research Hojo's records claimed was left in an obscure location. They had all figured out where the "obscure location" was, and were going there now. Cloud wasn't sure why Zack had wanted him to go along. Or why the two Firsts were allowing it. They all acted like he was a kid, and Hojo's labs weren't a safe place for them, let alone a "kid". Before Cloud could question, or just try to figure out why, all his concentration was set on not being sick. Zack had failed to mention they were going by helicopter.

Ah, no one had been aware of the motion sickness. They said something about another helicopter after this one, and several hours, and about when Cloud started to wonder if jumping out was a viable option, Genesis had mercy, and cast sleep on him.

ooOOOoo

Cloud came to, a little groggy, but not much. It had been a low-level spell, just enough to knock him out for the travel. That answered the old question; should have tried that years ago. Now for the next question, where were they?

Sephiroth, Genesis, and Zack all stood nearby, waiting for him to get his bearings. Cloud looked around, cold mountain region, old derelict house...no...Cloud looked frantically up and to the...there was Nibel peak. He looked back to the house. The old Shinra mansion. No.

"We're...in Nibelheim." Cloud stated, voice shaking.

"Yeah, we have to go check some stuff in this old house, but I thought since we were coming to your hometown, you'd like to visit your mom." Zack smiled at Cloud, pleased with his idea.

"No." Cloud shook his head.

"Oh…um, it's just things have been so...I miss my mom, so I thought..." Zack trailed off, looking at Cloud in confusion.

Cloud was still shaking his head. "We shouldn't be here."

"This is where the records we're looking for are, Cloud." Genesis said calmly. He continued with a faint smile. "We even filled out all the appropriate paperwork, first."

They still didn't understand. "NO, Sephiroth can't be here, he's going to destroy-"

"I was hoping that wouldn't start up again." Sephiroth said quietly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Cloud. Why is it Sephiroth can't be here, exactly?" Genesis asked, "What is he going to destroy?"

Nibelheim, and Meteor, and...everything. Jenova was just waitingfor someone who could hear her… "You can't hear her voice?" Cloud demanded of Sephiroth.

They all held very still, and stared at Cloud. Genesis asked, sounding strained, "Do you hear someone, Cloud?"

Cloud narrowed his eyes, and looked Sephiroth over carefully. Cloud couldn't hear Jenova at the moment, maybe Sephiroth couldn't yet, either. Maybe they'd need to be farther up the mountain. "I won't hear her, if Sephiroth doesn't."

"I know," Genesis said brightly, "How about Zack and Sephiroth go look for those papers, and I'll go with you to visit your mother?"

"No. I have to stay near Sephiroth." Cloud wasn't letting the man out of his sight.

"Alright," Sephiroth said slowly. "Genesis will help Zackary, and we'll go visit your mother."

"Stay away from my mother." Cloud hissed at him. Absolutely not. First the town, then his mother, then the reactor...NO.

They stood there, a four way staring contest, which was finally broken when Zack said nervously, "Guys, we really need to get looking, if this isn't where the research was left..."

"Then we have to start all over." Genesis sighed. "Cloud, if you stay-"

"I'm coming with you."

There was a jumble of words, as all three of them exclaimed or explained why he couldn't.

"If you leave me out here, I'll just follow you in." Cloud charged his barrier ever so slightly, when Genesis started fingering his wrist cuff.

"You will stay back, behind Zackary, and if there are any monsters like the last place we looked, Genesis and I will take care of them. Stay back." Sephiroth said sternly.

Cloud nodded. The most dangerous monster was the kind on two legs, anyway. He was going to keep an eye on that one.

They all headed in to the house, and Cloud hung back, while they tore the place apart. Between the monsters, and the men looking for something, the already derelict house became closer to total collapse. Then they found the safe, with the key to the basement. And…

"What was that thing?" Zack asked, voice shaking a little, as he ran his hands nervously through his hair.

Genesis was obsessively checking and rechecking his materia braces and cuffs, and darting glances around the room. Sephiroth gripped masamune convulsively, his knuckles turning white.

"How was it in the safe? How did it even fit? What-"

"Zackary." Sephiroth interrupted quietly. "Let's try that key now. Stay behind us, and guard Cloud. If we find something like that in the basement, leave."

Zack nodded, a bit of his wide-eyed stare fading. They unlocked the no-longer-hidden door, and walked carefully down the creaky stairs. All the way to the basement. There were all those papers. Cloud wondered idly why Hojo had left everything in such a mess. The shelves of books were in disarray, some torn off the shelves and left on the floor. The files of research which should have been in a cabinet were strewn all over the room.

"Was a monster in here?" Zack asked, eyeing the mess.

Oh. Maybe that was it. Trust Zack to figure out something like that. Cloud probably should have realized that was what did it. The room had a kind of green haze to it. No, the room was probably the same, it was Cloud who was…

"-check out the rest of these, you two stay here."

"And don't touch any of the lab equipment, for all we know something isliving in the test tubes."

Zack settled onto a fairly safe looking crate, after prodding it with his sword. He pulled Cloud over to sit next to him. The room was hazy green, and Cloud could almost see Hojo moving around, chortling as he...Cloud shook his head, and shivered. Zack wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Back here again, huh Zack." Cloud whispered, somewhere between before and now.

Zack startled. "You've been here before, Cloud?" He asked in horrified disbelief.

Cloud tried to hold back the hysterical laugh, but that just made it come at as more of a choked giggle. Before in so many senses of the word.

"You mean the first part of the house, right? Not down here, how would you have..." Zack trailed off, and Cloud offered no explanation or answer. They sat there, waiting.

"-if you happen to recognize it, that would save us time, we're rather short on it. Having another set of eyes looking would help, even if you don't." Genesis was saying, as he and Sephiroth, and...Vincent walked back into the room.

"Vincent." Cloud blinked. If he and Zack had ever seen the man while they were here, Cloud hadn't remembered it before. Surely Vincent would have mentioned it, all those years later.

"You know each other?" Sephiroth raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"I have been imprisoned in that room since before you were born; I have never met this child." Vincent tilted his head to one side, and looked curiously at Cloud.

"Well then, how would he know-"

Zack interrupted Genesis with a worried, "Guys, Cloud said he'd been here before."

The room seemed very quiet, all of a sudden. Then, Cloud thought someone might have said something to him, but he tuned it out, and went mute. He must have said something out loud. He focused on Genesis' presence. Zack and Cloud had been here before, don't think about it, and Sephiroth had been here before, and Vincent. But Genesis had never been down here, and so Cloud tried to bat the green haze away, and watch Genesis.

They were sifting through all the messy papers. Livea would have a conniption if she could see the sorry state of these files. Genesis was checking the handwriting on them against one he was holding in his hand. Hojo writing down what he had just done, smirking at...They had emptied out some of the crates, and were throwing stacks of files into this or that one.

Genesis stilled. "Sephiroth." His voice sounded odd. Zack looked at him, but Genesis shook his head a little, and handed the comparison paper off to Vincent. Sephiroth and Genesis paged through the stack of "research", looking increasingly alarmed.

Cloud wondered which recorded atrocity they'd found. Now they had shown Vincent, who was also looking at it, less alarm, and more...resigned disgust. Oh, maybe they'd found Vincent's records. Cloud tucked his knees against his chest, and wrapped his arms around them. This was a terrible place. Why were they here? Cold, and drowning in mako, and...Cloud drifted, trying to stay in the present, the other's voices murmuring in the background. There hadn't been much talking, before, later on. And Genesis was here. Very close, actually. Hadn't he been across the room?

"Cloud. Cloud can you hear me?" Genesis was speaking to him, and Cloud wondered how long he'd been trying to get his attention. Cloud met his eyes, and nodded.

"Cloud, who is going to destroy the world?" Genesis' tone was urgent, and there was something else there that Cloud couldn't identify.

"Sephi-"

"Cloud. Stop and think. Who is going to destroy the world?"

Thinking clearly was impossible to do in this place. If Cloud was in his room, with Little Friend for company...he had gone to Shinra to kill Sephiroth. Because he was going to destroy the world. Because Jenova would...oh. Since that first scare by the reactor, when Cloud had woken on the Nibel slopes, he had put that creature as far out of his mind as possible. Puppet. He really would lose his mind if he had to think about the fact Jenova was still alive, and could control him. How was that possible, if he didn't have Hojo's meddling this time, anyway? It had all started here, before, with Hojo and Jenova, and then...but did Sephiroth go mad because of Jenova? He hadn't burned Nibelheim until after...This present Sephiroth didn't seem to like burning towns, or murdering people's mothers, and he kept insisting that he didn't want to destroy the world. Usually something about the weather. What? Cloud gulped, and tried to focus on the present moment. Genesis wanted to know something.

"What...was the question?" Cloud asked, hesitant.

"Who is going to destroy the world?" Genesis asked, patiently, but with an edge of…

"Jenova." Cloud answered.

"Where did you learn about that?" Genesis looked into Cloud's eyes, intense.

"Here. The papers…" First it was the papers, then the town, then the reactor, then Hojo. Cloud had gone over that set of memories from four different people's recollections. That was the order it happened, no matter how confusing that night had been.

Sephiroth let loose with a stream of invective that would have made Cid blush. Zack was gaping, and Vincent had raised his eyebrows, and Genesis just looked grim. Cloud was startled enough, the green haze diminished slightly. Cloud didn't know Sephiroth could swear. Why was he, anyway?

"How did you get down here? Why..." Genesis cut himself off with a choked sound. Then he shook the sheaf of papers in his hand a little. "Cloud, this, isn't right. Hojo meddled with things no one should think about, let alone do. His research is messed up, and not even accurate, besides. Jenova is some kind of organism he took cell samples from, not Sephiroth's mother. He's not going to do 'what she desires', it's just a jellied monster...thing." Genesis finished with disgust, rather than his usual eloquence.

Cloud shook his head desperately. "She'll tell him to, andhe will, and then everything will be-"

"Let's kill it then." Sephiroth said coolly. "Does the 'research' say where it was kept, Genesis?"

Cloud gaped. He was going to kill "mother"? Cloud had wanted to, but the mind control. "She's in the reactor, but I couldn't kill her." He said, something akin to despair in his voice. Sephiroth wanted to kill the creature, but she would speak, and then…

There was a beat of silence, then a jumble of voices.

"Of course you couldn't, you're just a-"

"This reactor? That would make sense-"

"Something about this makes sense? You really-"

Cloud clapped his hands over his ears. Everyone talking so loudly had made an echo, and the dizzy, disconnected feeling was returning. When the room quieted, Cloud lowered his hands, and tried to breath evenly. He couldn't afford to drift off, this was too important.

Sephiroth spoke, quietly this time. "Genesis and I will go and-"

"NO! You can't go anywhere near her! She'll take over your mind, then your body, then the world!" Cloud nearly shouted.

Zack looked between Cloud and Sephiroth worriedly. "I can go with Genesis, and-"

"You're not going anywhere near something that could well be more dangerous than that thing in the safe. This 'Jenova' sounds like it has the capacity to be." Genesis said sternly to Zack.

They were at something of an impasse, then. It was far too dangerous for someone to go alone. What if they just decided to ignore Cloud's warnings? Cloud stumbled to his feet, and walked over to Sephiroth. He wrapped his hand around the man's wrist, and said desperately, "You can't go up to the reactor."

Cloud was small. And Zack was younger than last time, and if Sephiroth went mad, would Genesis stop him? Would he realize it was the beginning of the end?

"I shall go with Genesis Rhapsodos, and end Jenova." Said Vincent, a growling undertone to his voice.

To a man, they all startled. Vincent was standing off to the side, no longer sifting through the papers. Cloud hadn't even noticed him, and he was used to the man skulking in corners. Cloud gripped Sephiroth's wrist tighter. "We'll stay here." Cloud said. Sephiroth and Genesis exchanged a speaking glance, but didn't disagree.

Genesis and Vincent left to make the hike to the reactor, and destroy Jenova. Cloud believed they would try, but...he sat near a table littered with papers, and clutched Sephiroth's wrist. If the man was here, then he wasn't off destroying...Zack and Sephiroth had worked out a system, where Zack would sort the files into rough categories, and shove them over to Sephiroth. He sorted through the stacks, one handed, and would drop them into different boxes, based on some criteria Cloud really didn't care enough about to learn. He was too busy thinking.

Contingencies weren't the same as escape routes. They were just plans that morphed and changed, and you changed with them. Cloud drifted from past to present, from Hojo and Sephiroth before, and the current situation, where it was all too possible Sephiroth would still...it would take several hours to travel to the reactor and back, and who knows how long to kill Jenova. If that was even possible. No one had ever managed it, before. They hadn't understood until too late. By then, the Planet was...Cloud clenched his hand tighter. Sephiroth continued to sort papers, seeming not at all bothered by the circulation slowly being cut off to his fingers.

"Cloud...why didn't you tell anyone about all this. You know, when you were telling us Sephiroth would..." Zack managed to get his attention, and then asked him. Zack was motioning to the papers, and looking puzzled.

Tell them? Tell them what, exactly? Nibelheim burned, and Hojo cackled, and Jenova destroyed, and Aerith, and Meteor. Amid all this, Cloud would shift from memory to memory, from his own personality to Zack's, and Jenova was able to control him. How do you explain the end of the world, and make sense?

"...You would have thought I was crazy."

Zack made a choking sound, and Sephiroth stilled. After a long pause, Sephiroth went calmly back to sorting papers. Zack, biting his lip, did as well.

Genesis and Vincent returned. Cloud stared. If Jenova was gone, wouldn't something have changed? Could they not do it?

"The creature is gone." Genesis said simply, grimly satisfied. "Have you found what we were looking for?"

No. You would think she was gone, but something would be left behind. A tentacle, a cluster of cells, her head. "Are you sure? There's nothing left?" Wouldn't something have happened, here? Sephiroth didn't even have a headache. Cloud hadn't heard Jenova say anything to them. No begging, no desire for destruction, no…

Genesis stood straight, his posture erect, he gestured with his hands, and assumed a voice worthy of a theater performer. "Vincent and I did travel to the reactor, and behold: Jenova. A blue amorphous tentacle monster, asleep in containment. The streams of mako had crept up from the river below, and surrounded her prison with foreboding intent. With a mighty heave, I tore the doors off her cage, and stood guard while my fellow warrior blasted her with an impressive amount of ammo. Then, I took rapier, and sliced what was left into so much shredded..." He trailed off.

"Grass?" Zack chimed in helpfully.

"Not the right color, it was all rather blue. Then red. Anyway, then I blasted that into ash with a fully mastered Fire. Vincent...used some kind of dark energy to swirl it around, and grind that into powder. Then the mako surged into the containment unit, and swept it away." Genesis finished with a flowing hand motion, as if to demonstrate.

"You're sure she's absolutely dead?" Cloud asked worriedly. What if the Lifestream was poisoned again, now?

Genesis made a frustrated noise. "Minerva have mercy, yes, I'm-"

"Jenova is gone, and will not trouble The Planet and its denizens again." Growled Chaos. The others startled, and looked at Vincent in surprise.

That wasn't Vincent talking; Cloud looked into his eyes, and saw Chaos gleaming through. If Chaos was sure Jenova was gone, she wasgone. Cloud nodded to him in stunned disbelief. They nodded back.

Jenova was...gone. That was...Cloud's thoughts raced wildly. The threat was gone? Sephiroth wouldn't...or would he? Was there some kind of connection, even now? The background babble of people talking came to a swift halt, as Cloud scrambled closer to Sephiroth. Cloud's coordination was shot by now, so it was a clumsy grab for the collar of Sephiroth's shirt. Cloud pulled the man's face close enough he could see his eyes, very clearly. Very closely.

"Say you're going to avenge your mother Jenova and destroy the world." Cloud demanded.

Sephiroth blinked. His eyes were a vivid turquoise, and the pupils were round. "I'm going to avenge my mother Jenova and destroy the world." He said agreeably, conversationally.

Sephiroth's pupils stayed round. No color change. No cat-slit, green-toned alien possession. Cloud let out a gasping, choking noise, and fell back. The world had turned black-prickly instead of a mako-green haze, and…

Cloud probably hadn't lost consciousness, just became...insensible for awhile. He was breathing raggedly, and that was all he could focus on. Slowly he got that under control. When his breathing was quieter, and his heart wasn't pounding so loudly in his ears, he started to catch snippets of conversations.

"-we could leave all that stuff behind, put those boxes in the 'copter".

"-shouldn't leave it just lying around, who knows-"

"-I would be willing to ensure-"

Cloud thought he was probably leaning against someone's shoulder. His forehead was resting on a shoulder-like surface, anyway. They might have been rubbing his back. It was a little hard to tell, when Cloud felt like he might be floating above his body, instead of inside it. Yes, that's what was happening. Zack had done this before, after Hojo had…

"-we should just burn it all up and-"

"Don't mention that when he might hear you, he's already-"

They should leave. If Jenova was gone, there was no reason to stay here. This is the beginning of your nightmares. Oh, Vincent. This was where all the nightmares started. They should leave.

Cloud pulled away, and blinked dazedly at the men who were now all intensely focused on him. "We should leave. This is a terrible place to be." Cloud swiveled his head around, and located Sephiroth. He was closer than Cloud had expected. Cloud grabbed his wrist and headed for the stairs. Jenova gone or not, leaving Sephiroth alone in Shinra basement was a bad idea.

"Why don't you let Zack carry you out?" Genesis said, cajolingly.

Carry him out? Cloud wobbled. Oh. He eyed the stairway and sighed. He could do it, it just wouldn't be easy. He shook his head.

"I would, but honestly, I think I did something to my back. If you won't let Sephiroth, at least Zack could-"

Cloud shook his head and interrupted. "Zack carried me out of here before. I'mwalking out."

He ignored Zack's splutters and Genesis' quiet fuming, and walked very carefully, painstakingly up the steps. No one was ever carrying him out of here again. He was also never coming back. He'd save up his gil and buy the place, and ask SOLDIER to demolish it. This was the end of nightmares.

ooOOOoo

They had landed in Costa Del Sol. While the helicopter refueled, Cloud sipped one of those sickening beverages Freyra and...everyone was always pushing on him. They had found the needed paperwork, and were getting it to the doctor and Angeal as quickly as possible.

"So, I'm going to go and keep an eye on Angeal. They said this would definitely fix him, but he's going to be pretty sick still, until he's finished recovering. Okay?" Zack finished explaining, looking closely for Cloud's reaction.

Cloud nodded. He understood more than Zack realized. Cloud had felt how much Zack adored Angeal. "You need to stay close. He's your mentor." Cloud concluded seriously.

Zack laughed, brightly. "That's an...underwhelmish kind of word, Cloud."

That wasn't a word at all. Zack needed to spend more time around Genesis. Or Vincent.

"Where...is Vincent?" Cloud inquired. The ride here, and his state of mind hadn't been...up to paying attention to details like that.

"He was going to look at more of that creep's records, and find out what happened to a lady. Um, Lukatra, maybe?"

"Lucrecia." Cloud corrected.

"How you know stuff like that, but don't notice when people leave the room, Cloud..." Zack trailed off, shaking his head. "Anyway, I'm going off to Angeal, you don't try and kill your mentor anymore, huh?" Zack smiled, teasingly, ruffling Cloud's hair.

"My mentor?" Cloud asked, confused.

"Come on, Cloud, when Angeal was showing me cool sword tricks, what was Sephiroth doing, huh? When Angeal was talking about tactics, what were you and Sephiroth talking about? When-"

Cloud blinked in realization. Oh, that's what all that was. Cloud knew he had been missing something. He had known that Zack would have known what it all meant.

"You're really good at this kind of stuff, Zack." Cloud smiled at him.

"-who were you doing it with? What...oh." Zack looked at him, puzzled. Then shrugged. "That's right, I'm the boss." He posed, then pointed a finger at Cloud. "Don't you forget it."

"I'll try not to." Cloud agreed, seriously. He probably wouldn't, now.

"So, Sephiroth is to you what Angeal is to me." Zack explained, waving his hands a bit. "Except maybe more so, because you know, you're little. Er, young that it. Younger. You're a little younger than me." He raked his hand through his hair and grinned.

Cloud narrowed his eyes. What. "I'm going to hit my growth spurt any day now."

Zack unsuccessfully tried to muffle his snickers. Cloud sent a teeny-tiny bolt at him.

"YOUCH!" Zack yelped.

"Boys." Genesis and Sephiroth had finished their long, quiet conversation just out of range of hearing, and had come back to where Zack and Cloud were sitting.

"The helicopter has refueled, and Zackary and I must be leaving. One of us has to help Lazard keep SOLDIER and Weapon Development running, and honestly, I'm far better at that than Sephiroth." Genesis finished airily.

"A bureaucrat in the making. How sad I have not made as good a one as you." Sephiroth's mouth tilted up on one side.

Genesis harrumphed. Then turned to Cloud. "I'll take my long-due vacation time after Angeal is better. Sephiroth is going to take his now." He paused. "We all really think you should also, Cloud. Are you alright to spend time with him now, or is there still..." Genesis trailed off.

Cloud considered. This would be...different. Maybe that was a good thing. Easier to stay in the present, if it had so little in similarity to the past. He nodded.

After the helicopter had gotten distant enough it could hardly be heard, he and Sephiroth were still sitting there. It was a partially shaded table, so not too hot, but it was still a bright sunny day. Cloud hadn't been outside in a long time. Midgar didn't have very good air quality, so if you wanted "fresh air" you really had to go past the wastes. He'd been on house arrest for so long…

"It really is a beautiful day. I don't think I could bring myself to destroy the world today." Sephiroth said, looking at Cloud out of the corner of his eye.

For the first time, without being prompted, Cloud played along. Mostly. "Jenova is gone, I won't try to kill you, today." Cloud smiled faintly. This was a ridiculous tradition. No wonder Zack liked it.

Sephiroth made a humming noise in the back of his throat. "Is there somewhere you would prefer we go, rather than here?" He inquired casually, pleasantly.

Actually...the weather was lovely, but Costa Del Sol was brimming with tourists. It was the busy season, and there were people everywhere. There was somewhere else the weather and countryside was supposed to be really nice… "We could go to Mideel." Cloud suggested, hesitantly.

Sephiroth turned to him in surprise. "You wouldn't mind going, now?"

That was an odd emphasis; Cloud asked for clarification, "What do you mean, now?"

"Cloud, we've been trying to convince you to go to Mideel for quite some time. Why do think Freyra talks about it so much?"

That woman had talked his ear off about the place. Cloud was pretty sure he could find his way around the town blindfolded. "I thought she was homesick." It was meant as a statement, but came out a bit like a question.

Sephiroth's shoulders shook, and he covered his mouth with a hand and rubbed his upper lip.

"What did I miss this time?" Cloud asked flatly, but without ire.

Sephiroth stopped not-laughing. He said hesitantly, "There is...a clinic there, that we'd like you to visit. Not like the Science Department before the purge, just some people who genuinely like to make people well." He looked at Cloud, gauging his reaction.

Cloud knew Sephiroth well enough to trust the man would say loony-bin if that's what it was. More diplomatically phrased, but...so probably pretty harmless. What was wrong with his head probably wasn't quite something that could be fixed, but what would Cloud know? The extent of his medical knowledge was based on Hojo's mad ramblings.

He did feel kind of ill. That had been a very bad episode, back in the old Shinra mansion basement. But...he hadn't forgotten who he was. Where and when, but only his own awful memories swam around his head. Cloud preferred it that way. He liked not having to share his mind anymore. If he remembered more of his own experiences he had previously forgotten, well...it was worth the price. He was mostly suffering from the aftermath of feeling so disconnected. It would pass.

Freyra had spoken extensively about the different clinics there. He thought, if what she said was accurate, that one of them might be able to help with that. He felt unwell, and considering how poorly he had taken care of himself...the 'nagging list' came to mind. Cloud nodded.

"Okay."

Sephiroth blinked, then his mouth started twitching again. "Alright, then."

"It...will be nice to have some peace and quiet." Cloud explained.

"No wars looming on the horizon, or the destruction of the world." Sephiroth added conversationally.

"No planning people's deaths, or decimating terrorist organizations."

"So, we'll just get some peace and quiet. That does sound nice." Sephiroth agreed.

"Yeah," Cloud said. "It's a plan."