Butterfly Effect: Chapter 2
Dec. 26th, 2005 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bard_linnAuthors: Bard Linn and Kiraya
Genre: General/Drama
Pairings: None, at the moment.
Rating (Overall): PG-13
Summary: He would stay here, for a while at least.
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all associated characters and symbols are the exclusive property of Square Enix and its associates. We’re just borrowing them for a while.
Chapter 2
“Have you ever heard of someone named Sephiroth?”
Cloud brightened immediately. “Sephiroth? Colonel Sephiroth? Everyone’s heard of him! He’s the youngest person ever to make SOLDIER First Class, an’ probably the greatest SOLDIER ever. He has this awesome sword — you should see it, it’s huge, even taller than you…”
Vincent let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. So Lucrecia’s son still lived — under Hojo's watchful eye, no doubt. “How old is he?” he asked, interrupting the boy’s excited chatter.
Cloud thought for a moment. “I think… yeah, he just turned fifteen this winter, a few months ago, on—”
”December second,” Vincent said softly.
The boy gaped at him. “Yeah, that’s it! How did you know?”
The red-cloaked man said nothing, but his eyes suddenly seemed very old and very tired. Fifteen long years… and he had spent most of that time locked in the basement in nightmares. So much must have happened in that time… How much had changed?
Some things hadn’t changed at all, though. He still didn’t have the men or supplies to attack Hojo. And from the sounds of things, Sephiroth was a prominent figure in the public spotlight, which would make it difficult to encounter him while avoiding surveillance. If Cloud, who lived in remote Nibelheim, knew about the man… there was no way Sephiroth didn’t have eyes on him, reporting all of his moves. Briefly, Vincent wondered if a camera constantly tracked the young Colonel.
First things first. He would have to investigate the mansion in depth and see if he could find any materia or weapons in the abandoned rooms. He would make his way to Midgar eventually, of course, but for now… it would be best to stay in Nibelheim.
Cloud sighed. “I better go. Mom’ll be waiting for me.”
Vincent examined the boy’s eyes. He seemed to be doing better now than he had before. “I trust you will be able to return home safely?”
Cloud stood slowly and took a few tentative steps. “I think so.” He looked back up at the red-clad man. “You’ll still be here tomorrow, right? I want to see you again.”
“I will not be leaving here for some time. Go.” Cloud grinned at him, then carefully began making his way out of the mansion. Vincent stayed put long enough for the boy to be out of sight, then slipped into the shadows to follow him home. No reason to take any chances that the boy would slip and fall again on the way. Besides, it wasn’t like he had anything else to do at the moment.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I’m going out, Mom!”
“Did you finish your chores?”
“Yes, Mom,” Cloud replied, with the universal disgruntled tone of a child.
Elanor Strife smiled as her son went scampering out the door. The boy truly took after his father; some might even argue that Cloud was too much like him, despite the fact that he looked more like her.
Fastred…
Elanor sighed and moved into the kitchen, cleaning up the remains of lunch. Her husband had been very dear to her, and the nine months that had passed since his death hadn’t made the loss any easier to bear. Fastred Strife had first come to Nibelheim as part of the new reactor maintenance team. She had been working at the inn at the time and had laughed out loud upon seeing his name. Still, he had been an amazing person. Fastred loved to learn more than anything else, and had usually spent his time off exploring the surrounding mountains rather than in the bar like most of his coworkers. He’d sometimes find various strange and intriguing items to bring back with him. Elanor found herself listening with great interest to him talk about the things he had seen, his home town and the city of Midgar. Eventually Fastred had convinced her to go exploring with him. It hadn’t always been safe, but the young technician had an uncanny amount of luck and a healthy dose of common sense, and so they never had any major mishaps. Elanor had even gotten to see the famous materia cave many of the villagers talked about, but none had ever found.
She smiled in memory; Fastred had proposed to her there.
From the day Cloud was born, Fastred had started encouraging his natural curiosity. He didn’t take the baby out into the mountains, of course, but he did show Cloud many of the things that he had collected over the years. By the time his son was three, Fastred had taken him all over the village, pointing out the little things he had ever noticed about the people, the buildings, everything. For Cloud’s fifth birthday, he'd even taken his son up to see the very materia cave in which Elanor had agreed to marry him. The boy had loved it, coming home with his eyes shining, babbling excitedly about the trip.
Shortly after that, though, there had been an accident in the reactor. Fastred had died a few days later from Mako poisoning. There hadn’t been any evidence of foul play, and Elanor knew how dangerous the reactors were. Still… it hurt to know she would never see her inquisitive husband again.
Cloud, though, had taken his father’s death very badly. For many days he remained inside, quite a turnaround for such an inquisitive and restless boy. But after the funeral, Cloud had slowly begun to go out explore again. Elanor, glad to see her son out and about again, had allowed it after securing Cloud’s promise that he wouldn’t go up the mountain alone. There wasn’t anything around town that would bother him, at least to her knowledge.
She had noticed a bit of food vanishing from the pantry lately, however. Either Cloud was going through a growth spurt, or he had adopted a pet. In either case, her son was enjoying himself, and that was what really mattered.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cloud didn’t think he’d ever been so happy in his life, except when he had gone exploring with his dad. Vincent knew so many things! True, the not-vampire didn’t like to talk, but he still told Cloud so much by what he did. Watching how something or someone behaved was half of the trick to understanding how it worked, his dad had always said.
And so he watched Vincent eagerly, gleaning as much as he could from the strange man as they spent many long days scouring the Shinra mansion for things Vincent could use to support himself. The red-clad man had the most marvelous way of moving, for one; he was quick and silent and could disappear into the shadows almost effortlessly, something Cloud tried hard to imitate, but could never really manage. And whenever Cloud would talk, Vincent always managed somehow to fade into the background a little so that the boy found himself saying far more than he normally would to most people… not that he really minded, already having decided that the man was his friend. Vincent’s gaze was always intent upon him at these times, as if memorizing him along with the details of the largely one-sided conversation — even more so when Cloud would ramble on about Sephiroth and the latest news from Midgar. Then Vincent’s red eyes would be filled with something the boy could only identify as eagerness, carefully repressed but still very strong. Intrigued by this, Cloud would mention Sephiroth whenever possible, hoping his friend would finally come out and talk about his connection with the famous SOLDIER.
Vincent, meanwhile, was a little surprised to find himself enjoying Cloud’s company. He had never been particularly good with children; speaking with Cloud, though, was almost like interacting with a miniature adult at times. The boy was smart, sensible, and had already grown out of the foolishness that often plagued those his age… with the exception of his unswerving admiration of (and incessant rambling about) Sephiroth.
And by the Planet, he was observant! Vincent had noticed Cloud’s constant watching, his slow adoption of his own particular brand of stealth… and the boy’s conversational skills. Despite being the person who gave most of the information in their talks, Cloud’s blue eyes were often intent on Vincent, gauging his reactions to certain things… probably filing them away somewhere in his mind. Given the proper training, the boy really would make an excellent Turk.
But the very idea was ridiculous. No Turk would ever scout a backwater like Nibelheim for potential recruits. To even be considered, Cloud would, at the very least, have to cross the sea to Midgar, just as thousands of people trying to make it big did every year. It certainly wasn’t like Vincent could sponsor the blond himself, either; after all, he’d been “retired” fifteen years ago. And there was also that part of the gunman that insisted he keep the boy close. When he finally marshaled sufficient resources to take down Hojo, Cloud could well be a valuable ally.
The boy was only five, though… far too young to worry about such things as murder and intrigues like those that plagued the upper echelons of ShinRa. He could train the youth himself, he supposed, but Cloud had shown no interest in weaponry yet, nor in martial arts. And five was a bit young to start learning such things… unless the person in question expressed strong interest in them. It would hardly do for Vincent to begin training him only to have Cloud lose all desire to further his education in a year or two. So Vincent took what was really his only viable course of action for the moment:
Wait.
And so three weeks passed since the day that Cloud released Vincent from his imprisonment below the Shinra mansion.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cloud had quickly finished off his chores and his homework before starting off on his now customary trek to the Shinra mansion. He wished he didn’t have to have schooling; learning from Vincent was a lot more interesting, but… that was the way things were. At least his mom homeschooled him. He was able to finish his work in a much shorter time than the kids who attended lessons at Widow Lockley’s house. Nibelheim didn’t actually have a school, nor any certified teachers, so children were either homeschooled or went to Widow Lockley, who, too old for physical labor, offered lessons in exchange for the means to support herself. Most kids didn’t care about scholastic matters much; they were pretty much fated to follow their parent’s footsteps anyway, so why should they learn something they would never use?
Unlike his peers, though, Cloud cared a great deal about learning. His mother only required that he got the work completed and understood it, not that he spend long hours drilling on subjects he already knew. As such, if he applied himself, he generally had a lot more free time than his neighbors… time he’d always spent exploring before, but now spent with the ever-fascinating Vincent.
“Hey you! Yo, blondie, where do you think you’re going?”
Cloud glanced over his shoulder to see Jack Maynard advancing on him. The twelve-year-old was big for his age, which meant he practically towered over the rather slight Cloud. The pre-teen had started taking lessons with Master Zangan six weeks ago, and it had been, in Cloud’s opinion, an unnecessary boost to his already large ego. Cloud avoided him as much as possible, since the bigger boy was always looking for people to “demonstrate” his new skills on.
“Hold up, shorty! Don’t you want to learn some martial arts? I’ll teach you some, no charge!”
Well, Cloud actually wouldn’t mind learning some combat skills… but he was hardly going to learn from a bully. He increased his pace, hoping to get outside of Maynard’s usual territory; his mother would never tolerate him going near the Shinra Mansion, and they both knew it.
But that would require him to get away before Maynard reached him, which the boy’s long stride made seem a faint hope. It wasn't long before he broke into an all-out run, tackling Cloud in a matter of seconds.
“All right,” Maynard crowed, “let the lessons begin! Gather ‘round, boys, and make sure to pay attention.” He twisted his victim’s arms and placed his knee on the boy’s back. Cloud tried to break free, but found it impossible with the older boy’s weight and strength against him. Maynard yanked hard on the smaller boy’s arms, causing him to whimper in pain; the bully smirked. “Make sure your opponent can’t fight back. No point in getting roughed up yourself. Then… pummel ‘im!” Taking his own advice, he transferred his grip on Cloud’s arms to the wrist, holding them with his left hand. With his right, he struck hard, twice in the shoulders and once in the back, causing Cloud to cry out in pain. Maynard flipped him over and coolly gave him a black eye.
“Stop this now!” a deep voice roared as Zangan came striding on to the scene. Maynard let go of his victim without thinking, looking up in surprise; his cronies split as fast as they could, not wanting to make themselves targets of the burly man’s wrath.
The martial arts expert glared down his nose at his pupil in disgust. “I have never had one of my students use such tactics. You have obviously learned nothing about the proper use of the techniques I've taught you. You will be taking no more lessons from me, brat.”
Maynard opened his mouth to protest, but his teacher cut him off with a glare. “I expect you to apologize to that young—” Zangan looked to where Cloud had been, only to blink in surprise as he realized the boy had vanished. “Where did he go?”
His student, confused himself, could only shake his head wordlessly. Sparing a moment to hope the smaller boy was all right, Zangan said sternly, “Come with me, boy. We need to talk to your parents.” He gestured for Maynard to begin his walk home; the bully got to his feet, looking sullen. Zangan followed him, pausing briefly near the small figure hiding just out of sight. Though her father’s status would protect her somewhat, there was no need to turn this group’s attention to her; they might seek retribution for her actions. “Thank you for getting me, Tifa,” he told her softly. “You did a good thing today.”
The girl in the shadows flushed. “Master Zangan… do you think I could train with you someday?”
“I think so, Tifa. You will make an excellent pupil.” He smiled. “Now, I must take care of this ruffian. Go home.” Tifa nodded and quickly dashed off, wondering what had happened to the boy she had saved. She hoped he was all right…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In many ways, the smartest thing for Cloud to do would have been to go home. The rest of Maynard’s cronies doubtless lay in wait along the way, though, and he didn’t want to take any chances. Besides, Vincent was waiting for him; the man would worry if he didn’t show up. So it was that Cloud carefully made his way into the mansion, using the now familiar secret passages, trying his best to ignore the ache in his arms and the stinging of his eye. Whatever Maynard had done, it hurt.
The blond glanced up to see Vincent standing before him. A little unnerved by his friend’s sudden appearance, though he was slowly getting used to the occurrence, he smiled. “Hi.”
Vincent studied the boy in front of him. He was moving slowly, as if in pain, and the skin around his right eye looked red and swollen. While Cloud wasn’t the most graceful creature on the Planet, he was a long way from being a klutz… which mean that unless the boy had been doing something exceedingly stupid, someone had hurt him. “What happened?”
Cloud shrugged. Vincent firmly suppressed the urge to frown. Normally the child would answer any question he asked. For the child to remain silent indicated that he was likely embarrassed about the incident. “Nothing much. Just ran into some people on the way out,” Cloud reluctantly added, realizing Vincent was not going to let the matter lie.
“Bullies, I presume?” The blond winced. “Where did they hit you, Cloud?”
“My back and my shoulders. And my eye.” He lightly touched the swelling flesh. “Yanked on my arms, too.”
“Come.” Vincent led the way to the bedroom he had more or less claimed as his own. He bent down and retrieved one of the few potions they had been able to find. “Take a sip of this. That should be enough to heal your wounds.”
“But you need that!” the blond protested.
“Cloud, we have been looking for these so that we could use in them in the event one of us became injured.” The way the dark-haired man looked at him made the natural conclusion of this argument obvious… but Vincent was good at that.
The boy reluctantly accepted the bottle, taking care to only sip the smallest bit of its contents. He shivered as the soothing liquid quickly moved throughout his body, his injuries tingling briefly as the potion’s power eased the pain. While the wounds weren’t completely gone, they had healed significantly. Cloud carefully stretched; he still felt pain, but it was a minimal discomfort. “Wow.”
Vincent noted the boy’s reactions carefully. While it was rare, some individuals had negative responses to potions… but Cloud appeared fine. “Now, tell me what happened.”
Cloud sighed and leaned against the wall. “Jack Maynard came after me, tackled me, and roughed me up a bit. Master Zangan came by and stopped it before it got too bad.”
“And what did you do?” Cloud looked at Vincent in confusion. “Did you try to fight him?”
“No! Why would I do that? He’s twice my size!” This wasn’t much of an exaggeration. “I just tried to get away.”
“You ran?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong with that?”
“Most boys would try to fight. To take the honorable path.” Was Cloud imagining it, or did this last sound almost cynical?
He bristled visibly. “Well, there’s nothing honorable about picking on a kid half your age. There was no way I could do anything about it. Running was the best thing I could do!” A sigh. “I couldn’t even do that, though. I wasn’t fast enough.”
“Knowing your only option was to run, and actually taking that action… such a thing is extremely rare, Cloud. Most people would try to be heroic, even if they realistically couldn’t do anything. It shows good sense that you tried to escape.” Cloud stared at Vincent in surprise. “You do not have the training nor the skills to do any damage. Retreat was the best option, and you took it.”
“…I guess,” Cloud mumbled, mollified and even a little pleased by Vincent’s unusual loquacity.
They sat in comfortable silence for a time until Vincent, a thoughtful look on his face, finally said, “That does not have to remain the case, however. It is possible for you to gain those skills.”
Cloud shook his head. “Zangan won’t take anyone for training until they’re ten at the earliest, and Mom can’t afford to pay him for lessons, anyway.”
Vincent smiled, ever so slightly. “I was not speaking of Zangan. I am trained in various forms of combat myself.”
“Really?” Cloud’s eyes went wide. “You’d train me?” He paused. “Wait… I don’t have to become a vampire for this, right?”
Vincent started, then rolled his eyes as he bit back a sigh of exasperation. “I am not a vampire.” How many times did he have to tell Cloud that?
“Just kidding.” The youth grinned.
Vincent shook his head. When was the last time someone had joked around him? It had been so long… “I won’t tolerate complaints, Cloud. Whine once, and I’ll stop teaching you.”
“Okay!” the boy eagerly agreed.
“In that case, we’ll start with some running. I want ten laps around the main hall.”
“Yes, sir!” Cloud sprinted off, Vincent following behind at a slower pace. The former Turk watched his new pupil begin his laps with a quiet feeling of satisfaction. He would stay here, for a while at least. Sephiroth seemed to be doing well enough from the information he could find, and he was still low on supplies. It could possibly take years for him to marshal the forces needed for a successful assault on Hojo. For now, though, he would remain and train Cloud. Even if the youth did not come with him when he moved to strike, it would still be an interesting experience, one that should prove worth his time and effort.
Vincent began mentally drawing up a training schedule. Cloud wouldn’t know what hit him.
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Genre: General/Drama
Pairings: None, at the moment.
Rating (Overall): PG-13
Summary: He would stay here, for a while at least.
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all associated characters and symbols are the exclusive property of Square Enix and its associates. We’re just borrowing them for a while.
Chapter 2
“Have you ever heard of someone named Sephiroth?”
Cloud brightened immediately. “Sephiroth? Colonel Sephiroth? Everyone’s heard of him! He’s the youngest person ever to make SOLDIER First Class, an’ probably the greatest SOLDIER ever. He has this awesome sword — you should see it, it’s huge, even taller than you…”
Vincent let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. So Lucrecia’s son still lived — under Hojo's watchful eye, no doubt. “How old is he?” he asked, interrupting the boy’s excited chatter.
Cloud thought for a moment. “I think… yeah, he just turned fifteen this winter, a few months ago, on—”
”December second,” Vincent said softly.
The boy gaped at him. “Yeah, that’s it! How did you know?”
The red-cloaked man said nothing, but his eyes suddenly seemed very old and very tired. Fifteen long years… and he had spent most of that time locked in the basement in nightmares. So much must have happened in that time… How much had changed?
Some things hadn’t changed at all, though. He still didn’t have the men or supplies to attack Hojo. And from the sounds of things, Sephiroth was a prominent figure in the public spotlight, which would make it difficult to encounter him while avoiding surveillance. If Cloud, who lived in remote Nibelheim, knew about the man… there was no way Sephiroth didn’t have eyes on him, reporting all of his moves. Briefly, Vincent wondered if a camera constantly tracked the young Colonel.
First things first. He would have to investigate the mansion in depth and see if he could find any materia or weapons in the abandoned rooms. He would make his way to Midgar eventually, of course, but for now… it would be best to stay in Nibelheim.
Cloud sighed. “I better go. Mom’ll be waiting for me.”
Vincent examined the boy’s eyes. He seemed to be doing better now than he had before. “I trust you will be able to return home safely?”
Cloud stood slowly and took a few tentative steps. “I think so.” He looked back up at the red-clad man. “You’ll still be here tomorrow, right? I want to see you again.”
“I will not be leaving here for some time. Go.” Cloud grinned at him, then carefully began making his way out of the mansion. Vincent stayed put long enough for the boy to be out of sight, then slipped into the shadows to follow him home. No reason to take any chances that the boy would slip and fall again on the way. Besides, it wasn’t like he had anything else to do at the moment.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I’m going out, Mom!”
“Did you finish your chores?”
“Yes, Mom,” Cloud replied, with the universal disgruntled tone of a child.
Elanor Strife smiled as her son went scampering out the door. The boy truly took after his father; some might even argue that Cloud was too much like him, despite the fact that he looked more like her.
Fastred…
Elanor sighed and moved into the kitchen, cleaning up the remains of lunch. Her husband had been very dear to her, and the nine months that had passed since his death hadn’t made the loss any easier to bear. Fastred Strife had first come to Nibelheim as part of the new reactor maintenance team. She had been working at the inn at the time and had laughed out loud upon seeing his name. Still, he had been an amazing person. Fastred loved to learn more than anything else, and had usually spent his time off exploring the surrounding mountains rather than in the bar like most of his coworkers. He’d sometimes find various strange and intriguing items to bring back with him. Elanor found herself listening with great interest to him talk about the things he had seen, his home town and the city of Midgar. Eventually Fastred had convinced her to go exploring with him. It hadn’t always been safe, but the young technician had an uncanny amount of luck and a healthy dose of common sense, and so they never had any major mishaps. Elanor had even gotten to see the famous materia cave many of the villagers talked about, but none had ever found.
She smiled in memory; Fastred had proposed to her there.
From the day Cloud was born, Fastred had started encouraging his natural curiosity. He didn’t take the baby out into the mountains, of course, but he did show Cloud many of the things that he had collected over the years. By the time his son was three, Fastred had taken him all over the village, pointing out the little things he had ever noticed about the people, the buildings, everything. For Cloud’s fifth birthday, he'd even taken his son up to see the very materia cave in which Elanor had agreed to marry him. The boy had loved it, coming home with his eyes shining, babbling excitedly about the trip.
Shortly after that, though, there had been an accident in the reactor. Fastred had died a few days later from Mako poisoning. There hadn’t been any evidence of foul play, and Elanor knew how dangerous the reactors were. Still… it hurt to know she would never see her inquisitive husband again.
Cloud, though, had taken his father’s death very badly. For many days he remained inside, quite a turnaround for such an inquisitive and restless boy. But after the funeral, Cloud had slowly begun to go out explore again. Elanor, glad to see her son out and about again, had allowed it after securing Cloud’s promise that he wouldn’t go up the mountain alone. There wasn’t anything around town that would bother him, at least to her knowledge.
She had noticed a bit of food vanishing from the pantry lately, however. Either Cloud was going through a growth spurt, or he had adopted a pet. In either case, her son was enjoying himself, and that was what really mattered.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cloud didn’t think he’d ever been so happy in his life, except when he had gone exploring with his dad. Vincent knew so many things! True, the not-vampire didn’t like to talk, but he still told Cloud so much by what he did. Watching how something or someone behaved was half of the trick to understanding how it worked, his dad had always said.
And so he watched Vincent eagerly, gleaning as much as he could from the strange man as they spent many long days scouring the Shinra mansion for things Vincent could use to support himself. The red-clad man had the most marvelous way of moving, for one; he was quick and silent and could disappear into the shadows almost effortlessly, something Cloud tried hard to imitate, but could never really manage. And whenever Cloud would talk, Vincent always managed somehow to fade into the background a little so that the boy found himself saying far more than he normally would to most people… not that he really minded, already having decided that the man was his friend. Vincent’s gaze was always intent upon him at these times, as if memorizing him along with the details of the largely one-sided conversation — even more so when Cloud would ramble on about Sephiroth and the latest news from Midgar. Then Vincent’s red eyes would be filled with something the boy could only identify as eagerness, carefully repressed but still very strong. Intrigued by this, Cloud would mention Sephiroth whenever possible, hoping his friend would finally come out and talk about his connection with the famous SOLDIER.
Vincent, meanwhile, was a little surprised to find himself enjoying Cloud’s company. He had never been particularly good with children; speaking with Cloud, though, was almost like interacting with a miniature adult at times. The boy was smart, sensible, and had already grown out of the foolishness that often plagued those his age… with the exception of his unswerving admiration of (and incessant rambling about) Sephiroth.
And by the Planet, he was observant! Vincent had noticed Cloud’s constant watching, his slow adoption of his own particular brand of stealth… and the boy’s conversational skills. Despite being the person who gave most of the information in their talks, Cloud’s blue eyes were often intent on Vincent, gauging his reactions to certain things… probably filing them away somewhere in his mind. Given the proper training, the boy really would make an excellent Turk.
But the very idea was ridiculous. No Turk would ever scout a backwater like Nibelheim for potential recruits. To even be considered, Cloud would, at the very least, have to cross the sea to Midgar, just as thousands of people trying to make it big did every year. It certainly wasn’t like Vincent could sponsor the blond himself, either; after all, he’d been “retired” fifteen years ago. And there was also that part of the gunman that insisted he keep the boy close. When he finally marshaled sufficient resources to take down Hojo, Cloud could well be a valuable ally.
The boy was only five, though… far too young to worry about such things as murder and intrigues like those that plagued the upper echelons of ShinRa. He could train the youth himself, he supposed, but Cloud had shown no interest in weaponry yet, nor in martial arts. And five was a bit young to start learning such things… unless the person in question expressed strong interest in them. It would hardly do for Vincent to begin training him only to have Cloud lose all desire to further his education in a year or two. So Vincent took what was really his only viable course of action for the moment:
Wait.
And so three weeks passed since the day that Cloud released Vincent from his imprisonment below the Shinra mansion.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cloud had quickly finished off his chores and his homework before starting off on his now customary trek to the Shinra mansion. He wished he didn’t have to have schooling; learning from Vincent was a lot more interesting, but… that was the way things were. At least his mom homeschooled him. He was able to finish his work in a much shorter time than the kids who attended lessons at Widow Lockley’s house. Nibelheim didn’t actually have a school, nor any certified teachers, so children were either homeschooled or went to Widow Lockley, who, too old for physical labor, offered lessons in exchange for the means to support herself. Most kids didn’t care about scholastic matters much; they were pretty much fated to follow their parent’s footsteps anyway, so why should they learn something they would never use?
Unlike his peers, though, Cloud cared a great deal about learning. His mother only required that he got the work completed and understood it, not that he spend long hours drilling on subjects he already knew. As such, if he applied himself, he generally had a lot more free time than his neighbors… time he’d always spent exploring before, but now spent with the ever-fascinating Vincent.
“Hey you! Yo, blondie, where do you think you’re going?”
Cloud glanced over his shoulder to see Jack Maynard advancing on him. The twelve-year-old was big for his age, which meant he practically towered over the rather slight Cloud. The pre-teen had started taking lessons with Master Zangan six weeks ago, and it had been, in Cloud’s opinion, an unnecessary boost to his already large ego. Cloud avoided him as much as possible, since the bigger boy was always looking for people to “demonstrate” his new skills on.
“Hold up, shorty! Don’t you want to learn some martial arts? I’ll teach you some, no charge!”
Well, Cloud actually wouldn’t mind learning some combat skills… but he was hardly going to learn from a bully. He increased his pace, hoping to get outside of Maynard’s usual territory; his mother would never tolerate him going near the Shinra Mansion, and they both knew it.
But that would require him to get away before Maynard reached him, which the boy’s long stride made seem a faint hope. It wasn't long before he broke into an all-out run, tackling Cloud in a matter of seconds.
“All right,” Maynard crowed, “let the lessons begin! Gather ‘round, boys, and make sure to pay attention.” He twisted his victim’s arms and placed his knee on the boy’s back. Cloud tried to break free, but found it impossible with the older boy’s weight and strength against him. Maynard yanked hard on the smaller boy’s arms, causing him to whimper in pain; the bully smirked. “Make sure your opponent can’t fight back. No point in getting roughed up yourself. Then… pummel ‘im!” Taking his own advice, he transferred his grip on Cloud’s arms to the wrist, holding them with his left hand. With his right, he struck hard, twice in the shoulders and once in the back, causing Cloud to cry out in pain. Maynard flipped him over and coolly gave him a black eye.
“Stop this now!” a deep voice roared as Zangan came striding on to the scene. Maynard let go of his victim without thinking, looking up in surprise; his cronies split as fast as they could, not wanting to make themselves targets of the burly man’s wrath.
The martial arts expert glared down his nose at his pupil in disgust. “I have never had one of my students use such tactics. You have obviously learned nothing about the proper use of the techniques I've taught you. You will be taking no more lessons from me, brat.”
Maynard opened his mouth to protest, but his teacher cut him off with a glare. “I expect you to apologize to that young—” Zangan looked to where Cloud had been, only to blink in surprise as he realized the boy had vanished. “Where did he go?”
His student, confused himself, could only shake his head wordlessly. Sparing a moment to hope the smaller boy was all right, Zangan said sternly, “Come with me, boy. We need to talk to your parents.” He gestured for Maynard to begin his walk home; the bully got to his feet, looking sullen. Zangan followed him, pausing briefly near the small figure hiding just out of sight. Though her father’s status would protect her somewhat, there was no need to turn this group’s attention to her; they might seek retribution for her actions. “Thank you for getting me, Tifa,” he told her softly. “You did a good thing today.”
The girl in the shadows flushed. “Master Zangan… do you think I could train with you someday?”
“I think so, Tifa. You will make an excellent pupil.” He smiled. “Now, I must take care of this ruffian. Go home.” Tifa nodded and quickly dashed off, wondering what had happened to the boy she had saved. She hoped he was all right…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In many ways, the smartest thing for Cloud to do would have been to go home. The rest of Maynard’s cronies doubtless lay in wait along the way, though, and he didn’t want to take any chances. Besides, Vincent was waiting for him; the man would worry if he didn’t show up. So it was that Cloud carefully made his way into the mansion, using the now familiar secret passages, trying his best to ignore the ache in his arms and the stinging of his eye. Whatever Maynard had done, it hurt.
The blond glanced up to see Vincent standing before him. A little unnerved by his friend’s sudden appearance, though he was slowly getting used to the occurrence, he smiled. “Hi.”
Vincent studied the boy in front of him. He was moving slowly, as if in pain, and the skin around his right eye looked red and swollen. While Cloud wasn’t the most graceful creature on the Planet, he was a long way from being a klutz… which mean that unless the boy had been doing something exceedingly stupid, someone had hurt him. “What happened?”
Cloud shrugged. Vincent firmly suppressed the urge to frown. Normally the child would answer any question he asked. For the child to remain silent indicated that he was likely embarrassed about the incident. “Nothing much. Just ran into some people on the way out,” Cloud reluctantly added, realizing Vincent was not going to let the matter lie.
“Bullies, I presume?” The blond winced. “Where did they hit you, Cloud?”
“My back and my shoulders. And my eye.” He lightly touched the swelling flesh. “Yanked on my arms, too.”
“Come.” Vincent led the way to the bedroom he had more or less claimed as his own. He bent down and retrieved one of the few potions they had been able to find. “Take a sip of this. That should be enough to heal your wounds.”
“But you need that!” the blond protested.
“Cloud, we have been looking for these so that we could use in them in the event one of us became injured.” The way the dark-haired man looked at him made the natural conclusion of this argument obvious… but Vincent was good at that.
The boy reluctantly accepted the bottle, taking care to only sip the smallest bit of its contents. He shivered as the soothing liquid quickly moved throughout his body, his injuries tingling briefly as the potion’s power eased the pain. While the wounds weren’t completely gone, they had healed significantly. Cloud carefully stretched; he still felt pain, but it was a minimal discomfort. “Wow.”
Vincent noted the boy’s reactions carefully. While it was rare, some individuals had negative responses to potions… but Cloud appeared fine. “Now, tell me what happened.”
Cloud sighed and leaned against the wall. “Jack Maynard came after me, tackled me, and roughed me up a bit. Master Zangan came by and stopped it before it got too bad.”
“And what did you do?” Cloud looked at Vincent in confusion. “Did you try to fight him?”
“No! Why would I do that? He’s twice my size!” This wasn’t much of an exaggeration. “I just tried to get away.”
“You ran?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong with that?”
“Most boys would try to fight. To take the honorable path.” Was Cloud imagining it, or did this last sound almost cynical?
He bristled visibly. “Well, there’s nothing honorable about picking on a kid half your age. There was no way I could do anything about it. Running was the best thing I could do!” A sigh. “I couldn’t even do that, though. I wasn’t fast enough.”
“Knowing your only option was to run, and actually taking that action… such a thing is extremely rare, Cloud. Most people would try to be heroic, even if they realistically couldn’t do anything. It shows good sense that you tried to escape.” Cloud stared at Vincent in surprise. “You do not have the training nor the skills to do any damage. Retreat was the best option, and you took it.”
“…I guess,” Cloud mumbled, mollified and even a little pleased by Vincent’s unusual loquacity.
They sat in comfortable silence for a time until Vincent, a thoughtful look on his face, finally said, “That does not have to remain the case, however. It is possible for you to gain those skills.”
Cloud shook his head. “Zangan won’t take anyone for training until they’re ten at the earliest, and Mom can’t afford to pay him for lessons, anyway.”
Vincent smiled, ever so slightly. “I was not speaking of Zangan. I am trained in various forms of combat myself.”
“Really?” Cloud’s eyes went wide. “You’d train me?” He paused. “Wait… I don’t have to become a vampire for this, right?”
Vincent started, then rolled his eyes as he bit back a sigh of exasperation. “I am not a vampire.” How many times did he have to tell Cloud that?
“Just kidding.” The youth grinned.
Vincent shook his head. When was the last time someone had joked around him? It had been so long… “I won’t tolerate complaints, Cloud. Whine once, and I’ll stop teaching you.”
“Okay!” the boy eagerly agreed.
“In that case, we’ll start with some running. I want ten laps around the main hall.”
“Yes, sir!” Cloud sprinted off, Vincent following behind at a slower pace. The former Turk watched his new pupil begin his laps with a quiet feeling of satisfaction. He would stay here, for a while at least. Sephiroth seemed to be doing well enough from the information he could find, and he was still low on supplies. It could possibly take years for him to marshal the forces needed for a successful assault on Hojo. For now, though, he would remain and train Cloud. Even if the youth did not come with him when he moved to strike, it would still be an interesting experience, one that should prove worth his time and effort.
Vincent began mentally drawing up a training schedule. Cloud wouldn’t know what hit him.
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