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It seemed like he was always chasing him. Always three steps behind. Always one disaster too late. One planet away.
And yet, whenever Sephiroth wanted him, he was right there. Like it was nothing. Like it was easy. Like he always, always knew where Cloud was. Like Sephiroth was keeping tabs on him. Like…
“Cloud.” Purred that voice as he descended, wing extended, eyes glowing.
Cloud held his ground. Glared up at Sephiroth with fury, hand reached back, clinging to the hilt of his blade.
“No little friend today?” Sephiroth asked, casting his gaze easily about, his wing unfurling behind him as he settled to the ground.
“Leave Sora out of this.” Cloud drew his blade. Tried to steel himself. To be frightening. Sephiroth was the one who should be afraid. And yet… And yet every time…
“Jealous?” Sephiroth asked, a cruel smile crossing his face as he spread his hands to Cloud. “No need to be, Cloud. I was beginning to enjoy our little fights, but he does not begin to compare to you. After all, he serves no true use to me. Not like you.”
“Go to hell!” Cloud snapped, launching himself forward.
Sephiroth was not afraid. Was not even phased. He laughed, sword singing through the air. He flared his wing, taking off again, and Cloud followed with a burst of raw power, launching himself into the air after him.
“Why did you choose here of all places to settle?” Sephiroth asked him, almost casually. As if Cloud were not trying with all his might to cut his head off. “You should have stayed at that lovely coliseum. Whatever happened to your friend’s cape? To that sad little wing you wore?”
“Why. Don’t. You. EVER. Shut. Up!?” Cloud screamed in reply, slamming their swords together, twisting fast and hard, trying to get a hit in. Just one hit, just anything.
Sephiroth only smiled, and watched as gravity caught up to Cloud. Dragged him down into a heavy three-point landing in the grey-blue dirt of Radient Garden’s rocky outskirts.
“Because you don’t want me to.” Sephiroth answered, once Cloud was glaring up at him again. “I only ever do what you need of me, Cloud. If you stopped to think, you would find me MORE than generous.”
“Generous?” Cloud spat. “You’re a monster! It’s because of you Midgar fell!”
“A disastrous end for a disastrous world,” Sephiroth said, spreading his hands and wing both, tilting his head back to the skies. “And it served my purpose well. It carried me far beyond the confines of a single world. Now this universe shall know my glory, one planet at a time.”
“I’ll stop you,” Cloud screamed up to him. “We all will!”
“Ah yes. Your little friends from the rocket ship. Tell me. Did you save them all, Cloud? Or only a tiny handful of those you loved? Was your strength enough?”
He extended his gloved hand down to Cloud. “Give in to me. Become like me. Let my power flow through you. Or I shall take away what little you managed to scrape together from the ruins of our world, until there is nothing left for you but to be my puppet.”
“Never!” Cloud screamed up to him. “I’d have to die first!”
“Hm.” Sephiroth said, blinking. “And interesting proposition.”
Cloud fought. But he’d never been able to stop him alone. Not when it really mattered.
That was how Midgar had fallen, in the end. Tifa, he thought as the sword impaled him once more. Aerith. Cid. Yuffie. Everyone…
He thought of Vincent, dragged down into the darkness by the heartless, leaving only the cape Cloud had been holding onto. Thought of Cait Sith. Of Red XIII, and whatever their last moments must have been. Thought of watching, helpless, as the rocket took off. Looking back at the ground. At Barret, running back for Marlene.
I’m so sorry, he thought to those he was leaving behind. And see you soon, he thought to the friends he’d lost.
_______
To say that the heartless that formed in the kitchen was a surprise was the understatement of her life. It sent all of them scattering, even as small and basic as it was. Just a little shadow. Cid pulled out his polearm, and Tifa put her fists up at once. But Aerith…
“Wait!” She cried. “Wait.”
And bless them, they listened. And the little shadow shifted its weight, back and forth. Anxious, twitchy little thing. And Aerith felt her heart break, looking at it.
“Cloud,” she whispered softly in recognition, slowly sliding to her knees. Holding her hands out to the sad creature.
The heartless felt wrong to her touch. How long have you been half heartless, she wondered quietly, even as she heard the others yelling. Heard Tifa choke on tears. Cid curse. Yuffie start chanting ‘no.’
“You’ve been holding on so long,” She whispered to him, squeezing him closer. The cool darkness of the shadows. “Don’t worry. We love you broken too. We’ll keep you safe.”
The town of Radient Gardens learned not to attack the Shadow that wore the pink bow around one of its antennae.
It was a long time before they ran across Sephiroth again. Aerith wished she could have been surprised to see the empty-eyed nobody at his side, green eyes vacant, expression void of feeling. Bearing a single black wing, just as Sephiroth was.
Cloud had always been fractured. She twirled her staff. Steeled herself, just as Tifa did the same beside her. As Yuffie readied her ninja star and Cid lit an explosive off his cigarette.
Cloud had always been fractured, but his friends had always been there to put him back together again. And as the tiny heartless wearing her ribbon at her side scratched its claws against the ground in preparation, she smiled.
Cloud had never succeeded in fighting for himself. But he would always fight for them. Now, no matter the dark storm Sephiroth was summoning, they were going to return the favor.