"Hm. On that note, I do owe you, but in a different way. From what I hear you're the one left to clean up all my messes." And he did, though perhaps in a different timeline.Which means he was capable, and he would and could do it again.
Except maybe this time it won't be necessary. The world doesn't have to come to the brink of ruin if Cloud and Sephiroth are both on the same page.
He doesn't refute the repetition; surely if Zack wanted it discussed he'd have discussed it. He didn't, therefore it was the way it was wanted. "... If you think it'll help you, then be my guest. We're all in this together."
"Yup." Which may sound callous, but then-- "But they weren't your messes. They were Shinra's. And Rufus already knows he owes me and the world, big time."
Cloud nods - they're all in this together. It's something he'd learned, and then something he forgot. But the Barge makes it a little easier to remember.
"Told you about the lab and the mako poisoning. How Zack passed everything on to me. But I was so messed up from the mako and Jenova that my mind was hanging by a thread. Wasn't until I ran into my friend Tifa in Midgar that I woke up for real. She kept asking me all these questions about where I'd been and what I'd been doing, and I couldn't remember. If I had, I think...I probably would've broken for good, remembering Zack's death and everything. So my subconscious and the Jenova cells rattling around in there protected me from those memories, and...filled in the gaps with Zack's instead. He told me I'd be his living legacy, and I was. In all the wrong ways."
He picks up his glass and finishes it all at once. His tone is a shade harder now, a shade more disgusted. "I forgot Zack ever existed. Remembered his life as a SOLDIER as my own, so I could play hero. Erased him just as much as Shinra's coverups did. He was my only friend, he died to protect me, and I just...forgot him."
Cloud has to pause here. There's more, of course - the part that's most relevant to the conversation they were having about Sephiroth - but this, this is the crux of what Cloud wanted Angeal to know. He couldn't let Zack's mentor keep thinking he was a real protege, when all he really was was a delusional wannabe.
For someone admitting they forgot Angeal's protege and all but stole his identity, there seems to be little disgust or anger in Angeal's own reactions. He listens, and pieces it against what he knows.
Of himself, of what he did to his own copies. Genesis, and his own. What happened to those involved in the project, and what he'd been able to piece together afterward.
After a long moment of quiet, where Cloud has time to ruminate on his own perceived sins, Angeal frowns faintly. "Cloud, I want to ask a question that might be uncomfortable. It's related to this."
There's a pattern here. "..Are you sure you're Sephiroth's copy, or is that just what you were told? I don't mean simply possessing Jenova cells and following the S-type protocols, that's a good quarter of SOLDIER."
dammit, this got lost in the deluge of breach stuff, sorry!
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weartearrust) wrote2024-07-10 05:31 am
no subject
Except maybe this time it won't be necessary. The world doesn't have to come to the brink of ruin if Cloud and Sephiroth are both on the same page.
He doesn't refute the repetition; surely if Zack wanted it discussed he'd have discussed it. He didn't, therefore it was the way it was wanted. "... If you think it'll help you, then be my guest. We're all in this together."
no subject
Cloud nods - they're all in this together. It's something he'd learned, and then something he forgot. But the Barge makes it a little easier to remember.
"Told you about the lab and the mako poisoning. How Zack passed everything on to me. But I was so messed up from the mako and Jenova that my mind was hanging by a thread. Wasn't until I ran into my friend Tifa in Midgar that I woke up for real. She kept asking me all these questions about where I'd been and what I'd been doing, and I couldn't remember. If I had, I think...I probably would've broken for good, remembering Zack's death and everything. So my subconscious and the Jenova cells rattling around in there protected me from those memories, and...filled in the gaps with Zack's instead. He told me I'd be his living legacy, and I was. In all the wrong ways."
He picks up his glass and finishes it all at once. His tone is a shade harder now, a shade more disgusted. "I forgot Zack ever existed. Remembered his life as a SOLDIER as my own, so I could play hero. Erased him just as much as Shinra's coverups did. He was my only friend, he died to protect me, and I just...forgot him."
Cloud has to pause here. There's more, of course - the part that's most relevant to the conversation they were having about Sephiroth - but this, this is the crux of what Cloud wanted Angeal to know. He couldn't let Zack's mentor keep thinking he was a real protege, when all he really was was a delusional wannabe.
no subject
Of himself, of what he did to his own copies. Genesis, and his own. What happened to those involved in the project, and what he'd been able to piece together afterward.
After a long moment of quiet, where Cloud has time to ruminate on his own perceived sins, Angeal frowns faintly. "Cloud, I want to ask a question that might be uncomfortable. It's related to this."
There's a pattern here. "..Are you sure you're Sephiroth's copy, or is that just what you were told? I don't mean simply possessing Jenova cells and following the S-type protocols, that's a good quarter of SOLDIER."
dammit, this got lost in the deluge of breach stuff, sorry!
He shrugs. "Shoot."
At the question, he glances up at Angeal, lifting a brow. "I'm not his copy. I'm..." A pause, as he considers how to explain.
"Ever heard of the Reunion?"