#fmbte

Chapter 14: The Fall

The last moment of peace before the final showdown.

‘Barret’s gone back to Marlene, obviously. And everyone’s gone home, or to somewhere they love, to – to – to someone they love.’

His ears are burning, and he chances a glance across at Shera; her cheeks are pink, her gaze in her lap.

‘You came home,’ she says, barely above a breath, almost lost in the breeze.

‘Yeah,’ he breathes back.

Chapter 13: Find a Reason

Midgar, and finding a reason to fight.

The barrier is gone.

‘Then,’ Tifa says, slowly, ‘we can – we can go after Sephiroth, now, right?’

Cloud nods, and looks at Cid, hovering at the console.

‘Can we get down there, in the airship?’

Cid snorts, claps the trainee pilot on the back.

‘Course we can,’ he scoffs, ‘this is my star student. He can go anywhere I can, and he’s stupid enough to go places I wouldn’t fuckin’ dare!’

‘Uh,’ the trainee says, ‘thanks, Captain.’

Cid laughs, claps him on the back again, and then turns at Barret’s muttering.

‘What now?’ he asks, and Barret nods at Cait, doing some odd little jig atop the Moogle.

‘Uh,’ Cait says, ‘um. Two things, guys. Rufus is – gone.’

‘Thank fuck for that,’ Barret mutters, and Tifa clips his arm.

‘And the Sister Ray is – it’s being overpowered. There’s too much energy going to it from the Reactors. I can’t turn it off. It’s – it’s been redirected to the mainframe.’

‘By who?’ Cid asks.

Chapter 12: The Next Step

The gang work out what to do next, and tempers begin to fray.

‘You’re going,’ she says, and he nods.

‘Yeah, it’s – it’s nearly eight. Can’t say I’m much good as a captain if I’m not there on time.’

But he hovers in the doorway, and makes no effort to cross the threshold.

‘You’ll be safe, won’t you?’ Shera asks, and inches closer, until she’s toe-to-toe with him, her feet looking so small compared to his boots.

Her fingers are still fiddling with her sleeves, and he wants to take her hands, hold them tight, hold them to his heart so she can feel the truth of it when he says he’ll do his best.

‘I’ll come home,’ he says, and clenches his fists in his pockets, as tight as he can, nails biting into his calluses. ‘One way or the other.’

She nods, and for a moment, her hands hover like she’s about to fling them over his shoulders.

Chapter 11: Touchdown

The team land, and Cid carves out a quiet moment.

‘Oh, for fuck sake – don’t worry about me, get in that escape pod, ‘fore we crash into Meteor!’

‘I’m not leaving my friend behind,’ Cloud says, pulling a face at him, and he gives Tifa a nod, two, three, and they heave, but the metal won’t shift.

‘Just leave me here,’ Cid tells them, shoving ineffectually at the debris, ‘fuck it, leave me here, get in the pod, go on. Fuckin’ go.’

‘I’m not leaving you here,’ Cloud repeats, obstinate. ‘I don’t leave my friends behind.’

‘Oh, fuck off,’ Cid grunts, and gives the metal a half-hearted shove. ‘Don’t start that martyrdom bollocks again. Get going, you’ve got no time.’

Chapter 10: Launch Codes

The gang return to Rocket Town, and things are. Not ideal.

‘They’re going to use the rocket to launch the Huge Materia,’ Cid says, ‘that’s the only possible reason they can be going there. They’re going to use my fucking rocket to blow up Meteor! Fucking idiots, there’s no way it’ll work.’

‘We have three of the Huge Materia,’ Cloud says, ‘they must know we have two of them by now, and they don’t know we have the third. They’re going to try and launch it with two.’

‘It won’t be enough,’ Cid sighs, and leans back in the seat. He rubs his eyes. ‘Fuck sake, Shera.’

Cloud chews his lip, and then shrugs.

‘We’d better get topside,’ he says, and rifles in his pockets for his PHS. Looking at it he says, ‘if we can get the Highwind close enough, we should be able to avoid Junon entirely, right?’

Cid shrugs, and pulls one of the side-sticks back, and the sub begins to ascend. ‘Fuck knows. Worth a shot.’

He can’t think, his focus is totally shaken. All he can think about is that he hasn’t spoken to Shera for a week, and he should have called her, and he should have told her that he loves her, and fucking ShinRa are in the town, and it’s his town, and he was meant to keep them safe, and for fuck sake!

Chapter 6 - The Beginning of the Fall

It’s not so much a rest, as it is a fall.

She’s just about to plate the food when the door is unceremoniously kicked open. On reflex, Vincent is out of his chair, gun in hand, and Yuffie springs to her feet, grasping the fork she’d been spinning around her fingers. Red’s back arches, but it’s only Cid.

‘Fucking behave,’ he snaps, and slams the door behind him.

He’s dripping mud, not just muddy, dripping it. He’s battered and bruised and looks twice as bedraggled as the others had. Shera opens her mouth to express her dismay about the state of the floor – it had taken her a long time to get it clean after the mud the others had traipsed through – but the look on his face tells her not to.

‘Fucking PHS broke, didn’t it?’ he says, and kicks off his boots, yanking at his jacket. ‘You better not have fuckin’ worried. You know I’m made of harder shit.’

Chapter 9 - Stalling

Rocket Town is not a town used to being told what to do, but Shera understands that some battles you wait to fight.

The first crack to the smile comes between heartbeats. A short, sharp snarl, curled lip and dark eyes, and then it’s gone again. The Captain had always said you couldn’t trust a Turk, and she wonders if they can trust themselves.

‘What the President is doing isn’t your concern. We require the rocket.’

‘You do, do you? On who’s orders? Rufus’? I don’t know if Palmer’s out of hospital yet to authorise access.’

Elena’s smile turns cold, and her eyes flicker to the troops, who straighten either side of Shera. Shera herself stiffens, because she must.

‘You have a very loud mouth,’ Elena says, ‘which is at such bizarre odds with your file! I thought you were a mouse, if I’m honest. Quiet and meek and very much yes sir, no sir to your darling Captain.’

Chapter 2: Neon Geometry

Cid ain’t as stupid as he looks, no matter what the robot thinks.

Cloud talks so slowly, like he doesn’t know what to say, and before he knows it, he’s drifting off, asleep before they’ve got to the shit he doesn’t know. Vincent shakes him awake, hand on his shoulder.

‘Cid,’ he says, ‘hey, it’s late. Time to go to bed, old man.’

‘Ain’t an old man, go fuck yourself, grandad,’ Cid snorts back, but accepts the hand Vincent offers to pull him out of the ghost-cold chair.