Chapter Text
Something slammed into Cloud, light flaring so bright it hurt to look at, and the comforting numbness slipped away along with the blackness. Suddenly everything very definitely hurt... but it was a physical sort of pain, aches and bruises instead of mental agony. Dizzy from the shock of it, Cloud realized he was back inside his own body.
Frantic voices were calling his name, and he could feel the pop and fizz of cure magic flowing over his body. Groaning, Cloud forced his eyes open, and saw Aerith and Sephiroth leaning over him, both of them pouring white magic into him as fast as they could.
"Cloud!" Aerith exclaimed when she saw that Cloud was looking at them. "Thank the fayth, you're awake."
"We thought we'd lost you," Sephiroth said, letting his hands fell away from Cloud's forehead. "You were screaming like you were being tortured, and then when Sin suddenly collapsed in on itself, you went into convulsions and stopped breathing."
"Torture is pretty much what it felt like," Cloud agreed, wincing when his voice came out in a painful rasp. It felt like his throat had been torn to shreds. Well, it probably had been, if he'd been screaming that much. Though if the damage hadn't been healed after that much magic was cast on him, he was a little terrified of how badly injured he must have been to start with.
Now that the other two summoners had leaned back, he could see Tifa and Zack a little farther down the mountain path, arguing stridently with some of the guardians he'd seen with Rufus in D'jose. Cloud tried to call out to them, but all he managed was a horrible croak and a sensation like he was gargling with broken glass, so he decided being quiet was probably the best course of action for the moment.
"Hey! He's awake," Aerith called for him, and that at least got the guardians to stop fighting.
"Well, you sure know how to cause a ruckus, yo," the redhead in a suit said - Reno, Cloud thought he remembered Rufus calling him. "You seriously expect us to believe you just summoned Sin?"
Cloud tried to answer, and only managed to cough painfully. Once again magic settled over him, but this time when he looked up he saw Rufus standing beside his guardians, and the magic was coming from him. When he saw Cloud was staring at him incredulously, the blond summoner raised an eyebrow at him in a sardonic expression.
"It appears Lord Sephiroth and Lady Aerith have exhausted themselves, and I want to hear this explanation," Rufus told him.
That made Cloud laugh a little despite himself. "Well, thanks anyway," he said, and though his voice was still hoarse it didn't hurt nearly so much to speak. "I didn't summon Sin. I just... took control of it for a minute from Yu Yevon."
"So you can just steal anybody's aeon?" The dark-haired leader of Rufus' guardians, Tseng, wanted to know.
"I don't know, I never tried," Cloud retorted. "It doesn't matter now, anyway. There are no more aeons."
"Yeah, on account of your Blitzboy here and his lady friend destroying the fayth, yo," Reno said. "How was that a good idea, exactly?"
"Again, a question I'd like to hear the answer to myself," Rufus muttered darkly. "My aeons vanished the moment Sin was defeated. That's not supposed to happen. What if you're wrong about having defeated Sin forever, and it comes back in ten years? Spira will be helpless."
"It's not coming back." Cloud shuddered a little at the memory of the feeling as Sin was destroyed all around him. "Yu Yevon is gone with it, this time, and even if he wasn't gone, there's no final aeon for him to corrupt. Plus, with the fayth here finally at rest, there's no more dream Zanarkand for Sin to try to protect."
He looked Rufus square in the eyes, privately marvelling once again at how closely they resembled each other. Like Spiran and Al Bhed counterparts. "If you didn't believe Sin would be truly gone, why did you come back to help us?"
"Because, Yevon help us all, it looked like you might actually have a shot at doing it, with a little help," Rufus answered. He flipped his hair out of his face with a gesture that was both disdainful and a little arrogant. "Unlike certain other people, I've always had Spira's best interests at heart. And nobody can argue that Sin being gone for good isn't for the best for Spira."
"So who gets to be the High Summoner, yo?" Reno wanted to know.
"I'd say Cloud has a pretty good claim on it, seeing as he's the one who actually, you know, destroyed Sin," Zack said.
"Technically Lord Sephiroth is the only one who actually has the final aeon," Tifa pointed out helpfully. "I don't think you can actually be the High Summoner without having the Final Summoning."
"None of us are the High Summoner," Aerith said, her tone of voice brooking no argument. "If you think about it, we're the Last Summoners. That's a kind of honour all of its own."
"The Final Four," Zack mused. "Kinda has a nice ring to it."
"I can live with that," Cloud agreed, smiling a little.
There was an awkward pause, as they all stared at each other. "So, now what?" Rufus' female guardian asked - Cloud had never caught her name.
"Now we go home, I guess?" Tifa said, but it came out as a question.
Cloud grimaced. 'Home' certainly held no appeal for him. He'd never thought he would live past the end of his journey, so he hadn't bothered imagining a life after it was over, but he knew that if he never saw Nibelheim again it would be too soon.
"Well, the very first thing we need to do is put a stop to this stupid fighting between the Al Bhed and the Spirans," he said. "Not to mention, disband that awful 'containment camp'. And also, get Bevelle to stop trying to arrest me."
"I think I can do something about that last part," Rufus offered with a smirk. "I had to be rather firm with the council in order to take control of Evrae. My father seemed quite unwell, and I was forced to insist that he retire, leaving me to take up his place."
In other words, Rufus was now basically running Bevelle - and Cloud had handed him the perfect excuse for a takeover. Shaking his head, Cloud had to smile a little. "And will the council of Yevon stop persecuting the Al Bhed?"
"I may be able to cajole the priests into some sense, but I have little control over the Crusaders," Rufus told him. "They have a bit of a grudge against you, I'm afraid, and more of one against the Al Bhed."
"Well, there's one easy way to solve that," Zack said, and clapped Sephiroth on the shoulder. "With Angeal gone, they're short a leader. Every Crusader I ever talked to who was around when you were in charge said you were the best commander they'd ever had. What do you say, Lord General Sephiroth? Feel like taking up your position again?"
"I..." Sephiroth looked oddly hesitant, like he couldn't quite process the thought of it.
"You're probably just about the only Spiran the Al Bhed would ever believe isn't out to get them," Cloud pointed out. "They like and trust you, and that's going to go a long way in fixing this mess."
"I think that's a wonderful idea, if it's something you'd enjoy doing," Aerith said, clasping her hands together against her chest.
"Perhaps," Sephiroth agreed. "And yourself, Lady Aerith?"
"The peoples of Yevon will be in disarray and chaos, with the fayth vanishing," Aerith said. "More than that, they deserve to know the truth behind Sin, and what really led to its creation - and destruction. I think if I travel from temple to temple, talking to the priests and followers, it will help a lot." She looked at Rufus, and gave him a knowing smile that didn't quite manage to be a smirk. "Since Lord Rufus will be so busy taking care of matters of state at the higher levels, I'm sure he won't have time to tend to the needs of the common people as well."
And Rufus wouldn't be able to rewrite events to suit himself, with Aerith out there telling the truth to keep him honest, Cloud translated for himself. Not that he thought Rufus would necessarily try that, but there would probably be a lot of pressure from the rest of the council to heavily edit the story in their own favour.
"What about you, Cloud?" Tifa asked. "I mean, I guess you could become some kind of leader to the Al Bhed, to make sure they don't retaliate against the Spirans?"
"Yeah, right," Cloud snorted. "Like they'd have me. I may look like one of them, and I can talk to them in their language, but they're as foreign to me as they are to you in a lot of ways. And they can tell that, even aside from the fact that I was a summoner. I think it would stir up more trouble than it would solve. Sephiroth will fulfill that purpose just as well as the commander of the Crusaders, since they trust him."
"You could always take me up on that recruiting offer," Zack said. "I'm sure I can convince the Goers to take us both on. Or hey, for that matter, we could restart the Calm Lands Calamities! The Goers are doing fine without me, but I know tonnes of alts and people who would jump at the chance to be recruited, we could make a team no problem. What do you say, Tifa, you want in too?"
"Play on a Blitz team? Me? With you?" Tifa's eyes were so wide they seemed to dominate her face. "You don't even know if I can swim!"
"You're fast and agile, and you can hold your own and keep your head in a scrum, just like Cloud," Zack told her cheerfully. "The rest I can teach you. Just having you guys and me on the team will put butts in seats the first couple of seasons, and by then we'll be such a kick-ass team we'll have no trouble selling tickets to support the team."
It was all so overwhelming, Cloud didn't even know what to begin to think. He'd started this Journey partly to keep a promise, which he'd done, and also partly to prove to the world that he wasn't a loser. He supposed he'd done that, as well, but it was so hard to process. It was over - Sin was gone, there were no more aeons, there would be no more Summoner's Journey. He was a hero, more or less, though he didn't feel much like one at the moment. He felt like a battered, bewildered boy, with no real idea what to do with himself now.
Maybe that was how all heroes felt, really. After all, they were just people, too.
"Well, I know what I want to do first," he finally said.
"Oh yeah? What's that?" Zack asked curiously.
"A hot bath, followed by a hot meal, and a warm bed," Cloud said firmly. "And then I'm going to sleep for a week."
The rest could wait. He had his whole life to figure it out, after all. And good friends to help him along the way.
Standing to one side of the gates, Cloud watched as the crowds of Al Bhed slowly filed out of the containment camp. The people he saw looked gaunt and distrustful, but the hopeless looks they'd all worn when he'd first arrived with Sephiroth were starting to change. As the newly reinstated Lord General of the Crusaders, Sephiroth had addressed the camp in a brief speech promising all of them that they would be permitted to return to their homes, and wouldn't be molested or accosted again.
The fact that he'd delivered the speech in Al Bhed had more impact on the crowd than the promises themselves, Cloud was pretty sure. That, and having Rin make his way to the impromptu stage and publicly declare his belief in and support of Sephiroth.
Cloud had come along for two reasons. One, he wanted to see for himself that the camp was dispersed, with fair treatment to the beleaguered Al Bhed in the process. That part he was certainly satisfied about. Sephiroth had delivered a severe tongue lashing to the Crusaders involved in overseeing the camp, and made certain every one of them knew that any hand laid on an Al Bhed would be punished by Sephiroth personally. Somehow Sephiroth had even argued Rufus into returning the airship to its rightful owners - Cloud suspected blackmail or coercion, but he hadn't asked for the details, and Sephiroth hadn't volunteered them.
But his second purpose was the more important one, at least to him. Maybe that was selfish of him, to put his personal affairs ahead of the good of the race as a whole, but he really didn't care. He thought the world owed him this much, at least. His mother was in there, somewhere, and he needed to see for himself she was all right. Even if it meant she then denounced him for being a summoner.
He scanned the faces of the Al Bhed as they passed. More than a few looked at him curiously, standing there in a Calm Lander outer robe open over his Al Bhed wetsuit. Sephiroth had made a point of introducing Cloud as 'The one of the Final Four summoners who truly defeated Sin', though he hadn't forced Cloud to make a speech of his own, and it had raised more than a little curiosity among the Al Bhed. Cloud nodded in response to the looks, but didn't meet anyone's eyes long enough to encourage them to stop and ask him questions.
Just as he was starting to despair that she wasn't in the camp after all, there was a stir among the crowd. "Cloud?" a heartbreakingly familiar voice called. "Cloud, ec dryd oui?"
"Sysy!" he answered, feeling a huge weight lift off his shoulders. He jumped off the little stage and pushed his way into the crowd, calling in Al Bhed. "It's me, I'm here!"
Perhaps hearing his words, people started moving out of his way, a few of them giving him sympathetic looks. The moment his mother came into view, she ran towards him and threw herself into his arms, crying so hard he could barely understand her as she scolded him. "You bad boy! How could you run away from home like that, you had me so worried! When I couldn't find you in the camp, I thought the Spirans had surely killed you."
"Not for lack of trying," Cloud muttered under his breath, but he said it in Spiran so she - and the Al Bhed around them - wouldn't understand. Switching back to Al Bhed, he did his best to calm her. "Mama, I'm sorry. I didn't want to upset you, but I knew if I told you what I was planning to do, you'd try to talk me out of it. I did try to come back and tell you where I'd gone, but by then they'd already come to take you. I was worried about you, too."
"What you were planning to do?" She pulled back to arm's length, though she didn't let go of his shoulders, and studied him. "I don't understand. That man, the general, he said you were a summoner, what nonsense is this?"
This was it, the moment of truth. Cloud felt his shoulders hunching, and did his best to straighten them. He wasn't ashamed of what he'd done, far from it. He was just worried his mother wouldn't be able to accept his decisions. "I am a summoner, Mama," he told her. "It's what I left to do. I and my friends, including Lord General Sephiroth, we stopped Sin. Forever." He gave her a wry half smile. "Isn't that what the Al Bhed always said the Spirans should be doing? Trying to change things, instead of just doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result?"
Never mind that he'd had no intention of doing anything differently when he'd started on his journey. He'd expected to give his life just like every other summoner, and he'd only hoped that having a half Al Bhed High Summoner would help to bring the Spirans and Al Bhed together at last.
His journey had never been meant to end that way, he just hadn't known it until he reached the end of the road.
She stared at him, and he saw anger and denial flit through her eyes. For a moment, he really thought she was going to renounce him after all, maybe even disown him like Zack's mother had.
Then she shocked him by pulling him into a tight hug. "You are so much like your father," she told him, her voice choked. "He always refused to do anything the easy way. I swear, sometimes I thought he fell in love with me just because it was the hardest road he could have picked. His parents named him far too well."
It was the first time she'd ever said anything about him resembling his father, or really anything much about him at all. It had always seemed too painful for her to talk about Strife, so Cloud had never asked much. He hugged her back, and buried his face in her hair to inhale the familiar scent of her. It felt like coming home.
"More like him than you know," he had to laugh a little. "Zack - Sir Zack, I mean, my other guardian - he was the captain of the Goers, and now he's trying to convince me to restart the Calamities with him. What do you think? Can you stand having a Blitzer for a son as well as a husband?"
"Oh, Cloud. I'm so proud of you," she said, and he hugged her harder in response. "You father would be proud of you, too."
It was exactly what he'd dreamed of hearing, and feared he never would. In that moment Cloud realized that he really didn't care all that much anymore about everyone else's opinion of him. There would always be bigots and assholes who hated him for what he was - whether it was because of his Al Bhed blood, or his Spiran heritage, or the fact that he was a summoner, or even for playing Blitzball. His mother loved him and was proud of him. He had friends, good friends, who had literally gone to the end of the world with him and for him. No matter what happened, from this point on, nothing could ever take that away from him.
Really, what more could anyone ask for?