Two Letters and a Number

Cloud really didn’t want to be here, not in this office that was so close to the lab that stole five years of his life, and it was only the fact that Daniel wasn’t leaving kept him standing there, despite his casual stance next to the door. Elena was on her PHS talking to Rufus while Daniel was poking around the various journals that crowded the bookshelves that lined the walls. The faint scent of mako lingered in the air, a scent he figured permeated the very rock that enclosed the lab at the far end of the office, and in his mind, he could see Sephiroth once more pouring over the journals, desperately searching for answers to questions that Jenova and Hojo had sparked in him.

“Um, Elena, who is Specimen C?”

The words swirled through Cloud’s head before settling around his heart like an icy fist, and he stared at Daniel who was holding an open journal in one hand and a piece of paper in the other. “Why do you want to know that?”

Daniel held up the piece of paper. “I was wondering why Rufus Shinra was willing to let his twin be experimented on.”

“I don’t have a brother,” stated Cloud. Despite his messed up memories, he knew that for a fact. He never had any siblings when he lived in Nibelheim, just his mother, and if Rufus had a twin, then the world would have known about it. “And if Shinra had any siblings, then the world would have known.”

“Not if it was kept secret for some reason,” replied Daniel, turning the journal around for Cloud to read even as he placed the paper, a birth certificate, on the opposite page of the incriminating notation.

As Cloud took the journal to read the words there, he felt his world turn on its head again. If he was to believe what was written, then he was indeed Rufus Shinra’s twin, but the question was, did he *want* to believe what the evidence said? After all, how many times had Shinra or Hojo twisted the truth to suit themselves and to let others believe what they wanted them to believe?

He turned to glare at Elena who was staring at the journal in Cloud’s hands as if expecting it to suddenly transform into a Kalm Fang. “Tell your bastard of a boss that if this is a joke, I’m not laughing,” he growled, his hand tightening on the book. “And while you’re talking with him, tell him also that I want *all* the files about Specimen C. Non-negotiable.”

Elena listened to the voice on the other end of her PHS before turning and holding it out to Cloud. “He wants to talk to you.”

Cloud carefully took the PHS, not wanting to crush the delicate piece of circuitry and plastic before Rufus had explained everything. “What?”

“I assure you, Cloud, that what you found is no joke as you well know,” began Rufus, his voice almost bored, and Cloud could just see him sitting behind his desk, examining his nails while he talked.

“I never had a brother,” interrupted Cloud, the plastic squeaking slightly in his hand, reminding him not to grip the PHS too tightly. “I would have remembered a brother while I was growing up here with my parents. And I’m sure the rest of Nibelheim would have mentioned something about a brother as well.”

There was a sigh from Rufus. “Cloud, don’t pretend to not know what I am talking about just because Dr. Jackson is there. Father informed me numerous times that you were waiting in the wings to take over my company should I grow lax. And I will be keeping all of Hojo’s records.”

Something in Cloud’s mind snapped, and a growl echoed through the room. “You wanna play hard ball, you bastard, we’ll play!” he growled, dropping the journal on the floor with the PHS before storming to the far end of the office, drawing his swords again as he went. Dimly, he heard footsteps behind him but didn’t look to see who was following him. It didn’t matter who it was, fury burning through his veins, demanding he strike out at something and destroy the cause of his anger.

The stone walls opened into the laboratory where he had remained a prisoner and an experiment, mako tubes encircling the floor where a surgical table lay, dust coating the surface in a thick blanket. Without pausing, Cloud drove both swords into the table up to their hilts before turning on the tubes. He didn’t want his swords for this, not right now, not when his hands would be more satisfying.

Reaching the first mako tube, Cloud rammed his fist through the door, SOLDIER-proof glass shattering like ice, before grabbing the inside of the door and ripping it off its hinges. Blood trickled from the cuts in his leather gloves where razor sharp glass shards had sliced the gloves and his hands, but he paid the injuries no mind as he turned to heave the door into the mako tubes across the lab, the crunch of metal and the shattering of glass music to his ears. The shrieking of tearing metal was even more satisfying when Cloud pulled the tank out of its fastening and slammed it to the stone floor, and the tank crumpled under the force, like a child stepping on an aluminum can.

Baring his teeth in the parody of a grin, Cloud turned and moved to the next tank, ignoring the crumpled metal left in his wake. The low sound of someone talking was a distant murmur as he methodically destroyed every single object in the room, leaving torn metal and cracked stone behind him. All the frustration, fury, and pain that had built up by coming back to this place, he released it all in the destruction of his surroundings.

Finally, only two tubes were left, situated directly across from each other, and he turned to find Daniel standing in the doorway, his blue eyes huge behind his glasses. Cloud gestured for him to come over, the fury having abated enough that he no longer felt like ripping someone’s head from their shoulders, and Daniel carefully approached, stepping around the crumpled debris in his way.

“Let me show you my home for almost five years,” remarked Cloud, fingers digging into the metal before pulling the door away to let it fall to the stone floor with a loud clang. Inside, it looked just like any other tank except for the scratches in the metal surface. Scratches he had put there with his own nails, day after day of trying to escape the mako and the lab, desperately hoping he could get to Zack trapped in the tank across from him so they could escape this nightmarish place together.

Daniel leaned in as Cloud turned to walk across the room to the other tube and grabbed his main sword as he passed the metal table, the blade coming out with a screech. Stopping in front of the tube, he raised his hand to rest on the glass where scratches were dug into the inside, much like the ones in ‘his’ tube. There had been tines when Zack had ripped his nails off trying to get out, usually when Cloud was being taken out for some experiment, and Cloud could vaguely remember the green mako becoming faintly tinted with red before he was hauled off.

“For almost five years, we were in sight of each other, helpless to watch as the other was removed for experiments, unable to fight back, unable to escape.” Cloud’s hand tightened on his sword before he swung. There was a cracking sound before the top half of the tube slid off, sliced cleanly through, and absently Cloud noticed that the stone wall behind the tube had also been cut, the gash visible on the dark stone.

Cloud returned to the table and pulled out his second sword before bringing both of them down on the metal surface. A loud ka-chunk sound echoed through the suddenly quiet room as the table was sliced into thirds, and Cloud calmly sheathed the swords on his back again, apparently calm once more. He stalked towards Elena who was gripping her gun in one hand and her PHS in the other as if she couldn’t decide which one to use, and he plucked the PHS from her numb fingers, feeling the anger and fear of this place humming just below his skin. “I have been reasonable and considerate to you up to this point, but you forget that while I might not have carried the rank, I *am* a SOLDIER First Class. Now those records are mine by right of Doctor-Patient confidentiality, and if I do not get them or find out that you have made copies, I might loose my temper in other ways. And that wouldn’t look too good to the Tau’ri, now would it?”

“I do not appreciate being blackmailed...” began Rufus only for Cloud to cut him off again.

“And I don’t like being played for a fool, Shinra,” he replied, his voice hard. “There is absolutely *no* reason for you to hang on to those records, unless you prefer to read that sort of thing before bed. I expect to get a call from Tifa that those files have been delivered to her before I return to Edge. You have that long.”

He held the phone out to Elena who took it with a hand that only trembled slightly, and he glanced over his shoulder to find Daniel was examining the mako tube, fingers splayed to match up with the marks Cloud’s fingers had left there. “I’m leaving. I’ll wait fifteen minutes before leaving Nibelheim with or without you.”

With that final announcement, Cloud vanished up the stairs to the mansion and the freedom that lay beyond the doors.

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With one hand resting against the cool metal, Daniel stared after the blond, unsure what he should do. He was all too aware of the grooves under his fingers, spaced just far enough to indicate that fingernails had left these marks, but how long had Cloud clawed at the metal, desperate to escape the horror that he was trapped in, to leave such *deep* grooves?

He managed to wrestle his attention away from the chamber in front of him and walked across the room to examine the other chamber to find the same scratch marks on the glass, but as he put his fingers in the gouges, he realized that they were made by someone with larger hands. Also considering that the gouges were on the top of the chamber as well, the other person must have been taller than Cloud to have a longer reach. Daniel remembered the almost revered way Cloud had touched this chamber before slicing it in half as opposed to the almost animalistic way he had decimated the rest of the room. Whomever had been trapped in here had been important to Cloud.

‘A dozen feet away from each other and unable to do anything to help the other,’ Daniel thought, his heart going out to Cloud and his mysterious friend. He frowned at the realization that perhaps Cloud’s friend wasn’t so mysterious. It had obviously been someone who the blond cared a great deal about, and Daniel was willing to bet that somehow the person in question had also undergone the same treatment as Cloud to be able to withstand the numerous experiments done on them.

The mysterious Vincent seemed to fit the profile of the other person, from the comfortable ease between the two that the archaeologist had seen back at the Seventh Heaven, but that large golden claw wouldn’t have made such shallow grooves in the metal or glass despite being the right size.

“But Vincent’s eyes don’t glow as brightly as Cloud’s do,” he muttered with a frown as he tried to recall other people close to Cloud that had glowing eyes. If they had been through almost five years of hell together, there was no way Cloud would just shrug them off. Not with the reverence he had shown in his actions. Laughing violet eyes flashed in his mind, and Daniel felt like hitting himself on the forehead for being so obviously blind.

The reason why the person wasn’t in Cloud’s group of friends is because he was dead, killed some time after they escaped. His thoughts drifted back to the picture Cloud and Zack had made, holding each other in the Lifestream, an almost desperation in Cloud’s stance as if he could keep Zack with him by holding on to him tight enough, while Zack was trying to comfort and sooth at the same time. They were obviously close before Zack’s death, or Cloud wouldn’t have asked for Zack’s footlocker from Shinra along with his own, and it was obviously an injury that had yet to heal.

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Daniel wandered over to where Elena was listening to whomever was on her cell phone. “So, what happened to Zack Fair after he and Cloud got out of here? And why were they here in the first place? Does Shinra make it a habit of using their own troopers for lab experiments?”

Elena looked at him, her face unreadable before she nodded with a “Yes sir” before hanging up. “SOLDIER First Class Zack Fair died in the line of duty. Any other information is classified. Now if you will excuse me, I have work to do.”

“I don’t accept that as an explanation,” Daniel stated, his voice hard as he glared at her. He wasn’t going to swallow the “classified” line of bullshit from anyone. Not when it was this big of a shadow in Cloud’s past, a man Daniel was coming to consider his friend. “That’s a cop out. Now you can tell me, or my friends and I can pack our things and head home to leave you and your world without any of the help we can provide.”

It was easy to assume that Daniel knew nothing about politics, but between getting his PhD and acting as an advisor and translator on the various planets they had visited, he knew plenty about politics. While he might not enjoy the game as much as others did, he was not above using his knowledge to help others, usually the SGC. And if politics failed, well, he still had his gun on him even if he preferred not to use it.

Elena shook her head, slightly. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have another answer to give. You would have to talk to my superiors for any further information.”

Daniel was silent as he stared at her, not wanting to give up quite so easily, before he realized that he wouldn’t be getting any other answers from her. She had the air of someone who was willing to die before disobeying an order, and there wasn’t time to convince her other wise, not with the clock ticking on Cloud’s departure. Nodding once, Daniel turned to leave, scooping up the journal and birth certificate that started the entire mess, ignoring Elena’s protests that he couldn’t take it, and climbed the stairs towards Cloud.

When he left the mansion, he found Cloud standing next to his bike and frowning at the dark clouds that had rolled in some time when they had been in the lab. Daniel held out the journal, the birth certificate tucked away in the pages, and Cloud looked at him, surprise clear on his face before the emotionless mask slammed down again. The blond took the journal and tucked it away in one of his bags before looking up at the sky again. “We’re going to be stuck here for a few days, unfortunately.”

“What do you mean?” inquired Daniel, remembering how badly Cloud wanted to leave this place.

Cloud waved a hand at the dark clouds. “This storm’s gonna break sometime in the next few hours, and it’s gonna linger for a few days.”

Frowning, Daniel turned his own attention to the storm. “Can’t we just ride in the rain? I don’t mind getting wet, and frankly, I don’t want to stay here any longer than necessary.”

“Rain, I wouldn’t mind, but that’s shaping up to be freezing rain, and I don’t want to risk you getting sick or accidentally killed if we crash,” sighed Cloud, dropping his head to offer a wry smile to the brunet. “Besides, the Nibelheim roads are going to be pretty much unpassable in their condition.” He shook his head and slid on the bike. “Looks like we’re going to be in town for the anniversary anyway.”

“What anniversary?” Daniel asked, climbing on behind Cloud and wrapping his arms around his waist. Instead of replying, Cloud started the bike and took off for the town, and Daniel bit back a curse. He at first thought it was the blond avoiding the question until a gust of cold, damp wind danced across the back of his neck, and he shivered, huddling closer to Cloud.

A few minutes later, Cloud had stopped in front of the inn and Daniel slipped off, following the blond inside. The man behind the counter swallowed hard and stared at Cloud with large eyes as if expecting the blond to reach across the counter and rip him apart. Cloud ignored him as he stacked coins on the counter. “We’ll need a room until this blows over and a place for my bike.”

“You can park it in the stable. Shouldn’t bother the chocobos,” the man announced, his voice wavering slightly as he continued staring at Cloud. “I’ve got a room with two beds and a private bath. I can also send my daughter up for your laundry.”

Cloud nodded and took the key as he turned back to the front door, and Daniel trailed along behind him as the blond pushed the huge bike into the barn, opening a stall to park it in. There was a “wark” behind Daniel before something plucked at his jacket, and he turned to find a huge bird standing in the stall with what could only be described as a curious expression in its face. Its feathers were green, and it flicked its crest while peering at him with golden eyes. It was large enough for someone to easily ride on, and the beak and talons looked deadly sharp, natural weapons against predators. The bird, which could only be a chocobo, pushed its head against Daniel’s shoulder with another “wark”, and he was wondering what it wanted when he heard quiet laughter a few stalls over.

Glancing up, he saw Cloud was scratching just below the bright blue eye of a yellow chocobo, its head drooping in delight, and he couldn’t help but smile at how relaxed the blond looked with his fingers buried in those feathers. “Scratch just below his eye. It’s one of the itchy spots, and they can’t get to it too well with their talons.”

Cautiously, Daniel reached up, ready to snatch his hand back if that lethal beak started for his arm, and scratched just below the golden eye, and he jumped in surprise when the chocobo sighed with a “kweh” sound before nearly collapsing under his hand. There was more quiet laughter from Cloud, but Daniel ignored it for now, content to stand here and pay attention to this giant bird who wanted nothing more than a bit of attention while knowing nothing of human politics and cruelty.

Finally, the chocobo seemed to have had enough attention as it drew away, retreating to the back of its stall before it seemed to fall asleep, head bowed and one foot curled to balance on its knuckles. Daniel turned back to Cloud and bit his lip to contain his laughter as he noticed just how much Cloud’s spiky blond hair resembled the feathered crest of a chocobo. No wonder his friend teased him about the similarities to the point of getting wings tattooed on Cloud.

Cloud turned to him with an answering grin. “Yeah, laugh it up,” he grumbled good natured, before the smile vanished as his hand dropped away from the bird, getting a disgruntled “wark” as he turned away. “Come on. We need to get settled in.”

Their room was large, enough to have a small sitting area with a couch, a few chairs and a coffee table near the large windows that looked out over the town square while two twin beds were placed against the wall opposite of a door that Daniel assumed led to the promised bathroom. Cloud dropped his swords and bag on the bed closest to the door before starting towards the bathroom as Daniel wandered over to gaze out the window just as the sound of ice hitting the glass echoed through the room. He watched as the shimmering gray curtain covered the square and other buildings while people ran for cover, doors and windows being hastily shut against the icy onslaught. More proof that these people were not native to this town. The natives, like Cloud, would have known what the dark clouds meant and would have already taken precautions against the storm. When people lived long enough in one area, they learned to predict the local weather patterns and are able to act accordingly.

Daniel watched as the rain continued sleeting down, coating everything in a dull ice, before finally pulling out the cell phone he had been given and punched in the number for Healin. He had been checking in with Jack every few days just to keep the man from coming after him while thinking the worst, but considering some of the missions they had been on, it wasn’t that far of a concern.
“Daniel?” Jack’s worried voice sounded in his ear, and he found himself smiling, despite the circumstances that lead to this particular call. “You’re early. Anything wrong?”

“You could say that,” began Daniel, his eyes never leaving the glass. “Got some more information about Shinra, and it’s making me cautious in an Anise Is Visiting way.”

There was a low whistle from Jack before a couple of electronic beeps. “Okay I managed to get you on speaker.”

Daniel began talking, explaining about what they had found here at Nibelheim, the laboratory with the clawed marks on the inside of the chambers, the people who weren’t natives, and the half cryptic comments that Cloud had made combined with the inability to get a straight answer out of Elena.

“So you can’t get a straight answer about whatever assignment this Zack and Strife were on in Nibelheim or how Zack died. What’s so bad about that?” asked Sam.

“Jack, answer me this, when the military wants to explain what happened on a mission that wasn’t suppose to ever become public and soldiers got killed, what do they usually tell everyone?” Daniel asked, knowing the answer logically since it was used for any SGC personnel who were killed, and briefly he wondered why Sam was being so dense about it.

There was a sigh from Jack. “The information’s classified, and he died in the line of duty,” he stated in a flat voice, obviously thinking of those same dead soldiers whose families never knew the true reason for their deaths. “So you think the whole thing was a Black Ops gone wrong?”

“No, Cloud said that it was a routine inspection to Nibelheim that lead to Sephiroth going insane and destroying the place,” Daniel replied, blinking hard as that thought crashed down on him. Cloud was here when his home was destroyed by a madman, before he was imprisoned in a lab for almost five years. The archaeologist was willing to bet that was the anniversary that Cloud was talking about. “Plus, this was the very people that Cloud had served in the military that shoved him into that lab. POWs are one thing, Jack, but this was his *allies*.”

“Okay, so what do you suggest we do from here? ‘Cause I don’t think blowing them up will help any no matter how good it feels,” Jack inquired, and Daniel could almost see the wry grin on his friend’s face.

“We have to find out what happened, because if Shinra and his people are this evasive answering questions about what happened in the past, what’s to keep them from answering questions about what’s going on *now*,” said Daniel, leaning his forehead against the window and letting the cold sooth the headache he could feel forming behind his eyes. “Maybe an ex-employee who’s willing to talk to us, and knows what happened.”

“How about I introduce you to the *other* power on the planet, run by an ex-employee who changed sides before Meteor?” asked Cloud, and Daniel jumped, whirling around to face the blond who was only wearing a pair of jeans as he leaned against the doorframe of the bathroom.

“Daniel! What’s going on?” Jack’s voice was small as it emerged from the tiny grill, and Daniel fumbled with the phone a few seconds before he managed to put it on the speaker function.

“I’m fine, Jack,” sighed Daniel, running a hand through his hair as he gazed at Cloud. “What do you mean, the other power on the planet?”

Cloud shrugged a shoulder. “Reeve Tuesti is the president and CEO of WRO and is responsible for building Edge,” he stated, walking over to stand next to Daniel, glowing blue eyes staring out at the freezing rain. “He was the Head of the Department of Urban Development for Shinra.”

Daniel studied Cloud for a few minutes, not saying anything much to Jack’s displeasure, before he decided to jump to a conclusion about this Reeve Tuesti. “You trust him, don’t you? Despite what Shinra did to you, you trust him.”

A small, almost shy grin stretched across Cloud’s face as he looked sideways at Daniel. “He helped me build my bike.” That statement more than anything indicated the level of trust Cloud had for Tuesti.

“He must be a trustworthy companion if you are willing to trust him with your vehicle, CloudStrife,” rumbled Teal’c with Jack laughing quietly in the background.

“So how do we go about meeting him?” inquired Jack, and Daniel looked over at Cloud to find a thoughtful look on his face.

“Do you ever get back to the Seventh Heaven?” Cloud asked, and he smiled at Jack’s affirmative answer. “Go for dinner there tomorrow night, and I’ll call him to meet you there. Don’t be surprised if Cait Sith shows up instead of Reeve. Cait can be trusted just as much as Reeve can and is often his emissary for unknown situations. I’ll call Reeve and make sure he’s aware that he has a meeting to go to tomorrow night.”

“So if this guy is the *other* power on the planet, why didn’t you mention him when we first met?” Jack demanded, a suspicious tone in his voice.

That got a shrug from Cloud. “I didn’t know how long you were talking to Reno and Rude, and that would have put you firmly in Shinra’s corner.”

He turned away from the window and sat on his claimed bed, his phone in his hand as he dialed a number. Daniel stared at the blond, sitting there in just jeans with his knees pulled up to his chest and realized just how *young* Cloud looked. It was easy to see Cloud as much older than his apparent age when he was swinging his swords around and tearing laboratories apart

“Hey Cait. Didn’t know Reeve had you answering the phone now.” Cloud’s voice had a teasing note to it, and Daniel watched as a faint smile twitched the corner of Cloud’s mouth. “Yeah, I have business to talk with Reeve about. The Tau’ri that Shinra’s been entertaining have questions that Shinra’s not answering and it’s making them jumpy.”

Apparently this Cait Sith was trusted by Cloud if the blond was willing to tell them what was going on, and if Cloud was willing to tease them. “The one I’ve been escorting during this run, Dr. Daniel Jackson, saw Hojo’s lab at the mansion and found a journal on Specimen C. That lead to questions Elena wasn’t willing to answer, and they need someone willing to talk to them as well as answer those awkward questions.”

Cloud hummed before glancing over at Daniel as he lowered the phone slightly. “What’s the number your team’s using? Reeve wants to talk to them himself and set up the meeting.”

Jack rattled off the number, his voice smaller as it emerged from the phone’s speaker, and Cloud repeated it before nodding once. “Yeah. I’ll call later.”

With that, Cloud flipped the phone shut and dropped it on the bed next to him even as he nodded towards the phone that Daniel was still holding. “You might want to hang up. Reeve’s going to be calling them soon.”

“Daniel, call us again in a day or two,” ordered Jack before there was a definite click of the phone being hung up, and Daniel closed the phone with a small snap even as his eyes remained on Cloud. The blond seemed fidgety and nervous, more so than before, and Daniel wondered if he could help Cloud settle down or if there was more to this anniversary than he first thought.

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