Witness and the Crime

-3-

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         The first thing Zack noticed when he woke up was the burnt smell.

         The second thing was that his Super Femme Beach Volleyball action figures were all huddled to a side of the shelf, like they were gossiping, only with their arms up.

         Leaving his girl figures to their strange gossiping, he half-heartedly turned to the clock on the wall to his left. It was 5:47am. One of his eyebrows shot up.

         He turned to the other side, wondering if there had been a fire warning somewhere he’d slept through. It was quite common with SOLDIERs – an alarm would break out in a nearby sector and they’d wake up without actually knowing why. Something about sensing sounds waves too long for the ear to capture.

         His eyebrow shot up at the sight of the tousled bed beyond his dresser. Where did it come from? He puzzled over it for all of five seconds before deciding nobody should have to think before reveille.

         Then his shoulder angel piped up and he shot out of the bed. “Cloud?” he whispered harshly, even though he didn’t expect to be heard that way.

         A quick glance to the bathroom revealed its light was off. He yanked the bedroom’s door open, on the limit of ripping it out of its hinges, and jumped into the living room; the burnt smell was considerably stronger, and he almost expected to find the card-lock melted out of its socket.

         Except the door was perfectly fine and closed. On the other side, the kitchen door was opened and the light was on.

         Walking warily towards the open door, he saw that Cloud was inside, looking pretty much fine despite his terminal case of bed-hair. The younger boy was standing in front of the sink, staring inquiringly down at a plate with a singed, crusted and very much burnt-rubber-like pizza slice.

         At least it was just one slice, and not all of the leftovers they had.

         “What’s up?” Zack asked, his voice slurring a bit more than he intended to as he finally got around to rubbing the sleep off his eyes. “You’re early…”

         Cloud turned his head sharply. “Did I wake you up?”

         “No, no,” Zack waved a hand. It was technically a lie, but the kid seemed the kind to angst over small things.

         The boy just nodded slowly, as if it somehow confirmed his suspicions, and turned back to his pizza, waiting for what Zack guessed was an explanation to its unpizzally behavior.

         “My pizza is burnt,” stated Cloud.

         “I see,” said Zack. Feeling he should be a little nicer, he went on. “Maybe the microwave’s potency is deregulated or something.”

         “I don’t know much about microwaves,” said Cloud. “We didn’t have one at home.”

         Zack shrugged at the extra information and asked “How long did you set it for?”

         Cloud just glanced back at him, blankly, before turning to the microwave and pointing at one of the buttons. Zack saw himself forced to walk into the kitchen and towards the microwave to see which button was it.

         “Cloud, that’s the defrosting button.”

         “The pizza was sort of hard.”

         “Was it frozen hard?”

         “It was pretty cold.”

         Zack resisted the urge to palm his face as he turned to the boy. Remember, he told himself. This kid’s been through horribly traumatic experiences. He can’t be expected to be functional. Oh gods, this’ll make training him one hell of an experience.

         “Forty seconds is enough to make the cheese boil, Cloud” he revealed.

         Cloud blinked. “Cheese boils?”

         That was the last straw. Zack lost his flimsy grip on self-control and, next he knew, he was doubled up on the sink, trying not to smack it as he laughed hard enough to hurt in the ribs. He heard a faint “hey!” coming from Cloud’s way, and gave his best to stand back up and look at him like a normal person.

         The boy looked flatly disgruntled, and it only made Zack fall on his butt in a new bout of mirth.

         “Um,” Cloud said, scratching his head as Zack rolled, and smiled sheepishly.

         “Aw, here,” Zack raised a finger, then sputtered and fell back to the ground again. Cloud seemed resigned to waiting him off, and Zack finally started calming down enough to stand up again.

         “Just so you know,” started the older boy, voice strained with laughter, “cheese also melts.”

         “I know that much!” the kid flushed, kicking at Zack’s general direction. He was smiling again, but Zack started to wonder if that small, thin smile didn’t actually mean “pissed”.

         Dumping the overcooked pizza in the waste bin under the sink, he readied two slices, setting the plate in the microwave.

         “Watch and learn,” he said, earning a pouty frown from the younger boy, who nonetheless raised himself to tiptoes to have a good view of the microwave’s insides as Zack set the timer and turned it on.

         “It really is boiling,” he said, after half a minute of staring.

         Zack snorted, lowering his head to the sink least he fell again, but then reveille sounded.

         It startled Zack enough to make him flinch; it also made Cloud jump back from the microwave, stumbling against the fridge with a loud thud as he flailed, and then slid down to the floor, breathing hard, clutching his chest with a shaky hand.

         The microwave beeped. Zack looked between it and the boy on the floor, not knowing what to do first. He finally settled to picking the pizza out of the appliance, setting it onto the sink, before crouching by Cloud.

         “You alright?”

         Cloud nodded shakily, breathing deeply. Zack could see he had gone a few shades of pale, as well. It seemed the kid was still jumpy.

         He lifted Cloud by the arm, as delicately as possible, since the boy seemed strangely wary of accepting his offered hand; taking both the plate and the kid to the living room, he let Cloud fall back on the sofa and set the plate on the coffee table.

         “What’s wrong?” he finally asked, sitting by Cloud as he picked one of the slices.

         The boy just shook his head helplessly, still gripping his chest.

         Zack debated leaving it at that – but, really, if it were one of his old friends in the boy’s place, he wouldn’t, and he figured he should treat the kid as a friend, at least.

         “I know you spent a few hours in that room, alone,” he started. “Maybe enough to catch the afternoon reveille, or more than one.”

         Cloud didn’t flinch or twitch or show any kind of reaction, merely working on catching his breath. Zack took a healthy bite from his slice, chewing slowly as he chose his words.

         “Maybe it brings up bad memories.”

         “I don’t remember.”

         Zack turned to him. “I heard you didn’t. But it’s still there somewhere, isn’t it? In your head.”

         Cloud’s breath had evened out, but he didn’t say anything.

         “You know,” Zack tried again, “I’d really like to hear your take on the whole thing. What is it like to you? It can’t be easy, having to evade killers and room in with talkative guys because of something you can’t even remember. How much do you remember?”

         Cloud remained in silence, and Zack was about to give up for the moment when he finally spoke.

         “I don’t remember,” he repeated. “The crime, what came before it, what came after. Everything is fuzzy…” he glanced to Zack. “Even yesterday is a bit fuzzy.”

         He let his head fall back into the cushioned back of the sofa, and continued. “This guy that died… I don’t remember anything about him. All I feel when I hear his name is a horrible chill…”

         Cloud turned his head to the SOLDIER, as if to gauge his interest; Zack only nodded, not wanting to interrupt. The boy’s expression, as he turned back to staring at the ceiling, was unreadable.

         “I remember doing drills,” he started again, slowly, “shooting guns with my platoon, training with swords by myself. I remember studying at the academy, eating at the mess hall and hating the food. I remember shoving my fingers into my ears to cut off the sound of my roommates, talking and laughing as I tried to sleep. Then I remember being in a room I had never seen before… very clean, and as big as my house whole. There was only me, sitting up on a bed with a tray on my lap, and half-eaten soup. I was holding a spoon, but I couldn’t remember eating.”

         Zack noticed he had stopped breathing at some point, but didn’t try and correct that fact; Cloud had just opened his mouth again.

         “There was a needle in the back of my hand,” he scratched the spot lightly, “and I pulled it out. The sunlight was coming at an angle, but I couldn’t tell if it was morning or evening… I was feeling dizzy and weak, and really wanted to just curl up and sleep, but I had a lot of stuff to do. I had to train… I had to study… I had to present my apologies to the sergeant because I missed reveille and no one woke me up. I wanted to lie down, but I had to stand up. And I had no idea where I was.”

         He rolled his head back to look at Zack, and gave a small, faint smile that was completely different from the few ones he had shown so far – and more genuine, somehow.

         “Sounds silly, doesn’t it?” he asked softly.

         “It sounds pretty scary,” was all Zack could say.

         “It was at the time,” said Cloud. “Thinking back, it’s funny… I had stood up and my legs were almost steady when a nurse ran in, looking scared out of her mind. When I saw her barging in with her arms up to the air, I asked if there was a fire… and she just stared at me like she had never seen me there. I had already worked it out in my head that I had been sick, so seeing a nurse didn’t surprise me. She just burst into tears all of a sudden, started calling out for people, then tried to push me back to the bed… all the time I tried to explain to her that I was all better, that I had to go back to work, that I had fallen back in my training and my classes, that my team was only three without me. Obviously,” he smiled ruefully, “I wasn’t really talking any sense. The nurse just stabbed me with the needle again, saying that I had been very, very sick and needed to rest, and my sergeant already knew about that. Some other people had walked in and were muttering, but I didn’t much care. I think I fell back asleep at that time, because I don’t remember anything else…”

         He poked his pizza slice, idly.

         “Most of the other days were like that… I’d find myself lying on bed, standing at the window, or something; sometimes I’d notice I was in a completely different place, with a different view. Sometimes I’d wake up like the first time, not remembering what had happened before, and it would slowly come to me. The nurses changed at times, the climate changed. When I was good enough to stay conscious for most of the day, some important people came. They brought a psychisomething to ask me questions. He was a nice guy. I don’t remember much about our meetings, though…

         “Then the place was attacked. I saw all those people dying to keep me safe… I said ‘it’s my job to keep you safe, not the other way around’, but he said ‘did you forget what we told you yesterday?’ and then I just sort of remembered, I was supposed to have seen a crime. I couldn’t remember being told it, but I knew I had been told something to that effect. He brought me here in a bus, and we came talking the whole way. I threw up, but it was nicer than being in the room, so I told him that. I didn’t forget things half as much after that. He must have told the important people,” Cloud suddenly made a vague motion with his hand. “The man with the dot on his forehead, I mean.”

         “Do you mean Tseng?” asked Zack.

         “I don’t know,” Cloud shrugged. “I must have been zoned out when he told me his name. He was a bit of a stiff, but I’m not one to say.”

         Zack chewed on his now cold pizza slice, thoughtfully, as he thought back to all he had just heard.

         “That must have been creepy,” he said. “I mean, blinking and then not remembering what you were just doing. Being told that you knew things you don’t seem to really… know about. And the worst thing is that…”

         “…I have to remember,” Cloud completed in his place, running over Zack’s intended wisecrack. “Because the man might do it again.”

         The boy shuddered, squeezing one hand in the other; he looked almost sick. Zack didn’t think the boy had actually been eating as he should.

         He nudged the plate Cloud’s way.

         “You look horrible,” he wasted no time in saying. “Eat up. And remind me to get you something better than pizza for lunch.”

         “I’m not hungry anymore,” said the boy, staring intently at his bony knee.

         “Well, then,” Zack shrugged. “When your appetite comes back, just keep in mind that forty seconds are enough for a slice this size, okay?”

         The boy gave another little smile, nodding.

         Zack stood up, nodding back, and walked back to the room to get dressed for the day. He was supposed to go introduce himself to his new troops and make some sort of pompous speech, stand there looking important as they were inspected and drilled by somebody else and then find something else to do for three hours, as all 25 members of alpha-0 were supposed to attend Academy to study some theoretical shit twice a week. Zack was never part of that arrangement; he had passed straight into SOLDIER, and SOLDIERs studied if they felt like it, and with private tutors at their convenience.

         He had no idea if he was supposed to dress up for his introduction or just wear his normal uniform; he had just started putting on the uniform when someone rang the doorbell. Dressed only in pants, he walked into the living room, hoping Cloud had not pulled a mentally damaged stunt like opening the door for whoever it was. Cloud had made no move for the door, though; instead, he stood up, picked the plate and walked into the kitchen, closing the door behind him without even glancing Zack’s way.

         Zack looked into the peephole. Rude’s face looked quite distorted through it, and, as always, he had his glasses on even indoors.

         “Um,” he said, closing the door after the bald man walked in, “is it smart of you to come here instead of me coming to your place?”

         “You’re the captain of an Alpha troop,” the man said, standing by the sofa. “I could very well be informing you of a joint mission.”

         Zack scratched his head idly. “Um, sit down,” he motioned vaguely to the sofa, and Rude immediately sat. “I didn’t know Turks normally worked along normal troops.”

         “We don’t,” Rude shrugged stiffly. “We do work with elite troops, though, and you’ll be heading twenty five of them from now on.”

          “Don’t remind me,” Zack squeezed his eyes shut in a mock-wince. “But,” he started again, “do you work even with Alpha 0? Yeah, they’re in the Alpha group, but they’re still Alpha Zero. They’re, like, the worst of the best. If that makes any sense.”

         “It happens,” said Rude. “High-level missions can be given to Zero troops according to their perceived level of efficiency.”

         Zack nodded. “Well, that makes more sense. But why are you here?”

         “To check on the boy,” Rude said, his face as expressionless as ever. “We’re to periodically make sure he’s in good conditions, and that this arrangement is being beneficial to his state.”

         “I don’t think there’ll be much of a difference between yesterday and now,” Zack cocked an eyebrow.

         “No, but it’ll be a reference point for the next evaluation,” Rude rebutted, simply. “Where is he?”

         Zack pointed to the kitchen door. “He knows better than to stay in plain view… but that reminds me,” he shifted, “if someone comes over, what should I do? I’ve never kept my friends from roaming all over the house; I’d hate to have to start that.”

         “You won’t need to,” Rude smirked, almost cruelly. “Most SOLDIERs keep an underling around as a boy-toy, despite regulations; your friends will hardly give it a passing thought.”

         Zack faked a long-suffering sigh. “It’s the second time my sexuality is questioned in this mission…”

         The man stood up. “You’re in the army, remember?”

         “Yeah, whatever,” Zack waved him away, as if batting a fly. “Are you going?”

         “Of course not,” Rude strode over to the kitchen door, knocking and then opening without waiting for permission.

         Cloud was standing in the middle of the room, crumpled and mussed and solemn and unmoving and not looking at all alert or tense. One could think he was a wax doll someone had deposited in the kitchen in second thought; someone with enough of a morbid sense of humor to fit a meat knife in its hand.

         “I’m not a boy-toy,” he said, eyes just slightly narrowed.

         “You don’t have to be,” said Rude. “But if anyone asks, make believe. And use the knife if something comes up.”

         He closed the door, turning to face Zack’s displeased expression with a satisfied smirk.

         “The last time I saw him, he didn’t seem to understand he was in mortal danger.”

         “That’s because you were selling him short,” said Zack.

         “Let’s hope so,” Rude nodded, walking over to the door and turning. “Also… about Scherling.”

         Zack felt something grip his insides – he had completely forgotten about the man…

         “Veld watched your debriefing,” continued Rude. “He tells that Scherling is already under suspicion for a number of reasons, but he still couldn’t have accessed the experimental cape. And also,” Rude frowned, looking dubious, “he says that the reasons to suspect him could also mean the opposite.”

         Zack raised an eyebrow. “How is that even possible?”

         “I don’t know,” Rude shook his head slowly. “But this is what he had me pass on. He seems to know more about the situation than he’s willing to tell.”

         He opened the door, stepping out.

         “You don’t want to be late for your first day,” he said. “Good luck. That will be all.”

         Zack scratched his head as the door clicked shut. He had a feeling there were a lot of things being kept hushed in this particular mission… did Rufus even really trust him? Did Veld? He didn’t seem to trust even his Turks with all the information…      He shook his head to himself, trying not to wish Cloud would just remember it all and get it over with.

         A beeping sound from the kitchen brought him back to reality; he shook himself off, walking back to his room to escape the low, irritating hum of the microwave. It’d be a long day, but at least the boy was going to eat.