"Wait, where did you get that? Denzel, dont!" Well, it's too late for that; he probably doesn't even know which Summon he grabbed to begin with. He almost wipes out on Fenrir trying to reach him in time; but it's too late. His safe wasn't that hard to break into. It was Aerith's birthday for the combination. Unfortunately for Cloud, it's Hades, one he really did not like handling if he didn't have to. Typically, he gave it to Vincent to handle during a fight, it suited him; It takes a great amount of energy to use, and even greater to try for a child to control; that idiot kid Peter was back on his shit again, and Cloud hadn't been able to answer his phone or reply to his texts while driving. Denzel was no doubt fed up and taking things into his own hands. This particular one inflicts status effects, though it can do outright attacks; painful ones, ranging from poison, to petrification to turning someone into a frog. He really hoped it was the latter. Teaching this kid a lesson by turning him into a frog was right in line with his tactics. Fuck, both Tifa and Elmyra were going to kill him later.

A single step was all it had taken to put himself between Peter, and the younger girl. “Sandy, go stand over by the benches.” A soft, but firm suggestion that cut through tears and blood. The girls lilac stop splattered in red from where she’d landed on her head. Denzel wasn’t about to put her into the line of fire again. 

Really, he shouldn’t have been getting in a fight anyway. Denzel had tried to stay out of it, Cloud had already raked him over the coals (nicely) about getting into fights. Except…well none of the alternatives had worked. Truthfully, Denzel wasn’t the kind of person who simply relied on others to get shit done, he did it himself. Right now. That was exactly what he was going to do. 

Deciding to put the fear of god into the kid was made far easier by the fact that Denzel hated him. There were few people he hated but this asshole was firmly at the top of his shitlist. 

While the piece of red materia in his hands was menacing - that was the point. He had no intention of using it, sometimes the fear of something was more powerful than the fear itself. Even then, a small smirk spread across the boy's face. Cloud sure sounded like he thought Denzel was going to use it, excellent. It really sold it, and while Denzel felt kinda guilty for dragging Cloud into his plan without telling him, or you know, just doing shit he knew he wasn’t meant to be doing. The trouble he was going to get into was worth it. 

So. Very. Worth. It.

❛  we’ve just gotta keep on moving.  ❜

Mother mother || Accepting

"Right, uuum, you don't have to worry so much. I know how to get away from the Turks just fine."

Not like Tseng would let anything happen to her anyways, but Aerith doesn't mention anything about that. How many times has she relived this moment, leading Cloud through the slums after dealing with Reno? It feels infinite, stretching out ahead of her time and time again. Every time she has to pretend she doesn't know him, all of him, and it breaks her heart.

"We just gotta be sneaky is all! So c'mon!" She takes Cloud's hand and pulls him along through a back alley, humming to herself. At least she knows this is the beginning of the end of her days. All she has to do now is count them down.

Maybe she'll free herself this time. But probably not.

Was Denzel sorry? 

No. 

Kid deserved it and there was no way around that one. If there was anything that Denzel deeply despised it was unfairness, he’d suffered more than enough of it in his life to know what it felt like. He wasn’t going to just stand back and watch it happen. If it wasn’t Shinra dropping a plate full of its own employees onto its own citizens it was the fall out from their mistreatment of the planet and people leading to a damn apocalypse. Or, it was the gangs that had operated around Midgar after the city had literally collapsed, ready to pick out the guts of the place and sell it despite the fact they knew the damn place was poisoned. 

Frankly, he was getting a little fed up and tired of people bossing others around. 

The fight in the park had been the last straw. The house of that little girl crying had grated him in ways that Denzel couldn’t quite explain. Things were meant to be different now, how many times had he heard someone on TV say that this was a new world, or adults continuously talking about how things were going to be different now. Sometimes he wasn’t so sure. 

Truthfully, he hadn’t intended on throwing the first punch, but the moment he’d witnessed the other boy smack the younger girl, pure anger had taken over. He didn’t remember much of the fight beyond the first punch, it had turned into something more of a brawl than a skilled fight, but the winner had been clear. Denzel had emerged with a split lip and a graze on the side of his head and maybe a bruise or two, the other kid. Clean knocked out. Maybe, it would knock some sense into him. 

It was unbearable here, hot, penned in, claustrophobic. There was only so long Feng Wu could do this for, she’d tried…sure she’d helped when it was required. Yet here she was, trying desperately to get his, or anyone else's, for that matter of fact, attention. She wondered if humans realised just how much focus and concentration it took to move material from the inside? It was a pain in the ass, one that drained her, and yet she’d been insistent. The red ball of glass like material had rattled around, shone with a dim red at times, every little knock and prod into the mortal world unanswered. 

Until now.

She’d taken her chance at the right moment, while she wasn’t exactly sure how the materia had ended up shattered on the ground, it wasn't like she got to watch the whole thing from inside, but she felt fresh air for the first time. 

Oh heavens above, it was glorious. 

Right up until she narrowed her eyes at him. “Do you ever respond?” Oh, this little shit. “I have been trying to get your attention for weeks, literal weeks.” A huff left the phoenix as she smoothed red robes, used a hand to flick her hair back as she glared at him. “What do I have to do?"

A hand reached for her headdress, touching it to make sure it was still in place before she took a deep breath, maybe rage wasn’t exactly the right path to take? It occurred to Feng Wu that maybe she was being harsh? With a heavy sigh she eyed him, it wasn’t like she was totally unaware of the people she had been helping, though, it might have been the first time they’d had something akin to a conversation.

That mercenary surely was as grouchy as they'd come. His half-stripped uniform told him it was a former SOLDIER, the Mako-eyes did the same. At least that one seemingly had defected, too. That was all Glenn could really ask for.

Glenn wouldn't let that attitude offend him though, he just nodded with raised eyebrows, as if amused by it all.

"Fine. This mission went pretty well with your and my group combined. We could use talent like yours in the SRC. But I won't beg you. As long as you continue to go against Shinra, I'm fine with it."

He was never supposed to talk to strangers.

That had been one of the - many, were he being honest - lessons that Hojo had been very... clear about. It wasn't limited to just strangers, of course; he wasn't supposed to talk to the other experiments, to the scientists, to the SOLDIERS or the Turks. But some of those were easier to 'look the other way' on,

Hojo wasn't here now, but the man still haunted Joshua's every footstep. It was near impossible to stop himself from glancing over his shoulder every time he thought there was someone after him.

Midgar wasn't safe, but leaving felt nigh-impossible once you were stuck beneath the looming plates. It meant scuttling around in the shadows and doing what he could to keep himself hidden but alive, all while trying to ignore the thought that smiling at the wrong person would have him dragged back to his glorified jail cell until Hojo's watchful eye.

So he should have left the stranger alone. Should have let him sleep, even though it was obvious that whatever dream he was having was far closer to a nightmare. Shouldn't have felt concerned, shouldn't have tried to wake him-

The man jerked away and went for his sword. Joshua stayed frozen, crouched low from where he had reached out to shake the other, eyes watching him carefully. He should have been scared but only felt muted anxiety; the blade didn't worry him, but if a commotion resulted from it then ShinRa might be able to find him.

It wasn’t very often that he was left stripped of his baser inhibitions, little remaining outside of unfiltered fury.

Breath, Zack, breath.

The battle was over, finished, done with, he was bruised and battered, bloody, cold and exhausted, there was nothing there that would add benefit to him allowing the rage to fester. In fact, some said that was BAD.

Some said it was a victory for the villain to fall victim to that sort of thing.

He closed his eyes, folded his arms, one leg bouncing uncontrollably up and down—

It’s okay.

Breath — in and out.

It’s all right.

—- up and down

in and out—

“Ahhhhhhhh, Angeal!” He threw his head back. “You bastard!” He reached out, grabbing hold of what appeared to be a comically large stuffed rabbit. A beloved toy that had invariably seen better days. “WHAT is so HARD about TELLING me the TRUTH!” He shook the poor toy rabbit, an ancient squeaker inside screaming with each violent shake. “What am I gonna do, tell your mom? OH, I can’t, cause you KILLED her!”

He threw the rabbit to the ground, kicked it, grabbed it by one flimsy ear tragically hanging on by a thread.

“Hey, Zack—” Zack changed the intonation of his voice, wiggling the rabbit as though it were speaking to him. “—It’s Angeal. Look, I’m feeling a certain way. I found some stuff out, and…. I’d like to talk to you about it.”

“That was REALLY friggen difficult— Ugh!!!” He threw the damn thing as hard as he could, finally coming crashing back down to the ground when it collided with someone standing there.

There was a certain vision of a Soldier that people formulated in their minds: stoic warriors with a penchant for violence. They were feral in a different way than Zack was. Zack never relinquished his emotions to feel in all the many ways that could be felt. Oh and he felt something ferocious at every opportunity.

He was having a moment. Definitely didn't want to be caught having it, but where there was no one, now Cloud sashayed out of no where to slide into his peripheral.

“You’re the only one who can give others hope.”