Novelization: Advent Children
Chapter 2
Alone on a cliff over looking the ruined city, a wolf sniffs at the ground. Next to it, a sword is planted in the dirt, sticking up at a slight angle. The wind ruffles the wolf’s fur. It raises it’s head, and looks toward Midgar.
*~*~*~*~*
The soil was so dry that cracks had formed all along the surface… There was no vegetation in sight, save for some very brown clumps grass scattered here and there.
Near the edge of a cliff, a Cloud sat astride a motorcycle, cell phone in hand, listening to the messages left on his voice mail.
“I got a phone call from Reno and them in Healin,” Tifa’s recorded voice spoke, “They said it’s a commission job. Cloud… have you been doing OK?”
“You have no more messages,” a recorded voice reported at the end of her message.
Cloud closed his phone and put it away. As he did so, he briefly clutched his left arm, unable to ignore the slight twinge of pain. After a moment, Cloud looked out across the rocky terrain. Grey clouds drifted steadily across the sky, driven by a restless wind. Cloud hastily donned a pair of goggles before preparing to head off on his motorcycle.
Suddenly, he gasped in pain. Images flashed quickly before his eyes… too quickly to make them out. He clutched his arm, hidden by a long sleeve, and flexed his fingers tentatively as the pain lessened. When the it had past, he leaned low over the handle bars and sped off, sending up a cloud of dust from his rear wheel, traveling quickly across the barren landscape.
*~*~*~*~*
High on the cliff, where the wolf had been previously, three men on motorcycles stopped to look out across the plain at Midgar. The one in the middle kicked the sword from where it stood, and it fell with a metallic thud.
“Hey Kadaj… Is that our brother’s city?” asked the one on the right. He was slender and tall with long silver hair that trailed down his back. Like the other two, he was dressed entirely in black leather.
“Yeah,” replied the one in the center, Kadaj, with a bemused laugh. Kadaj was shorter, and obviously younger than the other two… just a boy, really, but with a look of cruelty in his eyes. His silver hair fell just below his chin. Despite his age, he was the leader of the trio.
“You think he’ll be glad to see us?” the first man asked.
“Not a chance,” Kadaj replied, amused.
“Don’t cry, Yazoo,” the third man quickly interjected, smirking. He was tall and muscular with short, cropped silver hair.
“But Mother’s with him…” Yazoo mused.
“Maybe not,” Kadaj replied.
“Don’t cry, Loz,” Yazoo admonished, mimicking the other man. Loz, in fact, did seem visibly upset. Kadaj turned his gaze to the plains below the cliff.
“Look… It’s our brother.”
Yazoo and Loz followed his gaze. Far below, a man on a motorcycle was speeding by. Yazoo turned away from the sight to glance over at Loz, who smirked and chuckled in response. Without another word, Yazoo and Loz revved the engines of their bikes, rocketing over the edge of the cliff and down the steep incline, heading straight for the man they’d seen from the clifftop.
*~*~*~*~*
As Cloud turned his head to briefly cast a glance backwards, Yazoo and Loz’s bikes were catapulted into the air, flying over an outcropping of rock. They quickly fell into formation behind him. Dark shapes appeared on the ground in front of the two men’s bikes, as if something evil were burrowing through the barren soil. They streaked forward towards Cloud, and as they began to catch up, they emerged, revealing themselves for what they were.
Great four-legged beasts with armored bodies…. six of them. They had a vicious look to them, and did not hesitate to attack. A compartment opened on the side of Cloud’s motorcycle, revealing an array of swords. He quickly chose one of the blades, drawing it. One of the beast leapt at him, but Cloud easily cut it down and then forced the motorcycle into a skid, swinging the sword with great precision to dispatch a second. A third went down as it tried to overtake him from the left. As the creature shrieked in agony, Loz pulled up beside Cloud in the creature’s place.
“Where’s Mother?” he asked, brandishing a lethal-looking weapon attached to his left arm. He didn’t bother to wait for an answer from Cloud. The weapon crackled with energy as Loz took a swing at Cloud’s head.
Cloud managed to avoid the attack, throwing his motorcycle into a spin. As he fought to regain control of the vehicle, however, Yazoo took the opportunity to attack from the right, firing at him with a short-barreled rifle.
“We know you hid her, Brother,” Yazoo proclaimed, maneuvering close to Cloud. Cloud deflected another round of shots from Yazoo with his sword, and Yazoo peeled off from the pursuit. A fourth creature attacked as Yazoo moved out of range, forcing Cloud into a skid to avoid it. A fifth beast fell into step beside it, continuing the chase.
Yazoo and Loz circled Cloud, attacking sporadically as they did so.
*~*~*~*~*
“Don’t tell me… You’re leading me on,” Kadaj said firmly, “Mother’s really THERE, isn’t she?”
Kadaj was speaking into his cell phone as he watched the action below from his position on top of the cliff. He sat casually on his motorcycle.
“No need to shout,” he laughed, as though whomever was on the other end of the line amused him greatly.
“I don’t wanna talk to you anymore,” he continued, suddenly becoming serious, “Put the president on.”
Meanwhile, Cloud was still fending off both the creatures and the two silver haired men. He struck down the fourth creature, but two more still pursued him and Yazoo and Loz still badgered him at every opportunity.
Loz tried a frontal attack, sending his motorcycle into a skid directly in front of Cloud’s, and forcing cloud to jump his bike right over Loz. Cloud came down hard, his bike wobbling as he fought for control. Loz was immediately after him again, riding alongside Cloud on the right, his weapon poised to strike. Cloud managed to fend off an initial blow, but suddenly he was assailed by the pain in his arm once again. He gasped, looking momentarily away from Loz, but he recovered quickly and struck at Loz.
Loz parried the attack, sending the sword flying from Cloud’s hand. Cloud watched as it sailed away, and when he turned back, he saw that Yazoo was on a collision course with him… and there was little he could do about it.
Yazoo upended his bike, sending it airborne and taking careful aim with his gun as his target rode beneath him. Cloud looks in astonishment up at Yazoo as he fired. The shot struck Cloud goggles, knocking them away, but leaving Cloud unharmed save for a small cut above his left eye. Yazoo landed smoothly behind him and resumed his chase.
The two remaining creatures, too, were still hot on Cloud’s trail, and as they ran, they were joined by still more, appearing from nowhere. The new creatures emerged seemingly from thin air to join the hunt. Cloud wove back and forth trying desperately to avoid them, as Yazoo and Loz fell back.
The creatures surrounded Cloud, now having the upper hand. They converged on him and leapt. Cloud’s fate seemed sealed as the descended upon him.
High above the battleground, Kadaj raised a hand into the air, and just as quickly as they appeared, the creatures turned to dust, vanishing in an instant. Cloud looked around in disbelief, catching sight of Kadaj on top of the cliff. Loz laughs as he and Yazoo broke off their pursuit for good, leaving Cloud to his journey.
As they rode out of sight, Cloud came to a stop, turning to watch them go. Kadaj smirked, and then he too rode off, leaving a very confused Cloud alone on the plain.
*~*~*~*~*
Not much later, Cloud’s motorcycle was traveling down an unpaved, but well-worn road. Large boulders, and flourishing plant life adorned the road on either side.
Once again, Cloud was checking his voice mail.
“What up, foo’?! It’s Barret! I am the man! Oil, Cloud. I just found the biggest damn oil field you ever seen! Survey is done, so I should be able to get out there and see Marlene soon! You let her know, alright, Spiky?”
Higher up in the cliffs lay Cloud’s destination. Healin Lodge. He rocketed past a sign directing passersby to the place.
“Reno called again,” Tifa’s recorded voice said, “He says to hurry. And he sounded kind of strange. Be careful, Ok?”
Cloud drove over a short span of bridge. Healin Lodge was in sight. It was a building that looked quite small beside the mountain range that rose up majestically behind it. At last, Cloud pulled up in front of the building, parking his bike. He strode purposefully up the long flight of stairs that led to the door.
He didn’t bother to knock, throwing open the door while simultaneously drawing one of his swords from the sheath on his back, expecting the inevitable. Immediately, a blur of red, and Cloud was suddenly attacked by an assailant who had been lying in wait. Sparks flew as his sword connected with his attacker’s weapon… an arm-length metal rod. It was none other than Reno of the Turks. Reno backed off momentarily, but only long enough to gain ground to renew his assault. Again, he struck out with the rod, charging forward determinedly.
But Cloud sidestepped, and the surprised Turk’s own momentum sent him stumbling out the open door. Unsteadily, Reno wheeled around for another try, but Cloud slammed the door in his face.
“Ok… so you’re good,” Reno drawls, his voice muffled by the heavy door that now stood between himself and his would-be opponent. Cloud responded by flipping the deadbolt on the door, locking Reno out, and then turned back to the now-empty entryway.
Across the room, a door opened, and a second figure emerged. Cloud took a few steps away from the door, ready for another fight. This time, it was Rude. As the Turk advanced, he pulled on a pair of fighting gloves. Facing Cloud, he took up a defensive stance.
“Yeah Rude! Lookin’ sharp!” Reno shouted from outside, eagerly cheering on his fellow Turk. The stoic man didn’t reply. With a flick of his arm, Rude revealed a weapon identical to Reno’s, but Cloud’s sword was at Rude’s throat before the Turk could attack. Rude said nothing, but backed off.
“Good… You fight like the Soldier you once claimed to be,” proclaimed a voice from the other room. The soft whine of an electric motor droned in the air as a wheelchair emerged from the doorway. Cloud turned to look, but did not immediately lower his weapon. The occupant of the wheelchair was shrouded in a white blanket, most of his body, and his face, hidden from view. He maneuvered the chair between the two men, and Rude took up a position behind him, looking every bit the stoic bodyguard.
“You haven’t lost your touch,” the man in the wheelchair continued.
*~*~*~*~*
Flashback to the destruction of the Shinra Building in Midgar, its top levels destroyed by a blast from WEAPON… a loan figure within tries to shield himself from the shower of glass and flame that is suddenly upon him, only to be engulfed by the explosion. The tower erupts in flames, warning sirens droning all around the city.
*~*~*~*~*
Cloud took a good look at the man before him.
“Is that you, Rufus?” he asked, not sure he entirely believed that the president of Shinra Electric Power Company could still be alive. He glanced over at Rude.
“Do I feel sorry for you,” Cloud said. Rude shifted his weight from one foot to the other and looked away, before clearing his throat and resuming his statue-like position.
“That day…” Rufus began. But Cloud didn’t want to hear it.
“What do you want with me?” he demanded.
“I managed to get out…” Rufus attempted to continue, but again he was cut off.
“Who were those people who attacked me?”
“… of the building before it collapsed,” Rufus intoned, wanting to tell his story.
“I’m leaving,” Cloud declared, tired of this little game. He turned away from Shinra’s president.
“We need your assistance,” Rufus said at last, his hand reaching up to pull the blanket down to better hide his face. Bandages were visible at his neck, and on his right hand were black markings similar to those on Denzel back in Midgar. It is clear that he, too, is infected.
“Not interested,” Cloud replied.
“I acknowledge that Shinra owes the planet a lot,” said Rufus, “It goes without saying that my company and I are the ones who put the world in the sorry state it’s in. Therefore, it’s our responsibility to set things right.”
“I’m still out here!” Reno’s voice called from outside, obviously annoyed. He had been listening at the door.
“As a first step,” Rufus went on, ignoring the Turk, “we have commenced an investigation into the influences on the planet that Sephiroth left behind.”
“Yep, at the Northern Crater,” Reno added from the other side of the door, unwilling to be left out of the discussion.
“What do you think we found?” Rufus asked. Clouds expression changed, some amount of concern registering in his eyes.
“Nothing. There was nothing,” said Rufus, “You can relax… However, not everything went according to plan. We were… interrupted. By the same three who attacked you… Kadaj’s and his gang.”
“Kadaj?” Cloud replied, more interested now.
“It seems he doesn’t want us finishing what we started,” explained Rufus, drumming his fingers on the armrest of his wheelchair.
“Really, I don’t know why…” he concluded with a sigh.
“What does that have to do with me?” Cloud asked.
“You’re our buddy, aren’t ya?” Reno piped up, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Cloud responded by giving the door a hard kick, in the hopes that the Turk had his ear firmly pressed against it.
“Kadaj’s group is young and violent,” Rufus warned, “They’re extremely dangerous. So, we decided it might be in our best interest to hire a little… muscle.”
“Too bad… I’m a delivery boy now,” Cloud insisted dismissively.
“You’re all we have,” responded Rufus. His tone was insistent, almost pleading, “Cloud, look… you’re an ex-SOLDIER, aren’t you?”
“Hmph… in my head,” Cloud replied, ending the discussion. He turned away and walked toward the door, unlocking it and pulling it open a crack. Reno was still lingering outside.
“What’s this ‘Mother’ they were talking about?” Cloud asked before leaving.
“Why? Did Kadaj say something to you?” Rufus replied with a chuckle, trying to make light of the matter, “Well, don’t worry about that. There are children all over the world who yearn for their mothers. You’re living with orphans, I hear… Think about it. Don’t you want to put smiles back on their faces?”
Cloud neither responded nor looked back.
“All we want, in the end, is to rebuild our world, Cloud.”
At this, Cloud did turn back to look at him.
“But I…”
“Come on Cloud, think about it. Together, we could rebuild Shinra,” Reno cut in.
Cloud turned back to the door, and pushed past Reno.
“Not interested,” he said with finality, giving the door a pull behind him.
“Reno!” Rude and Rufus chorused, exasperated, and the redhead turned back as the door closed in his face a second time.
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