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Caius is giving him a critical eye but Angeal is just nice to a fault.

Part of a Soldier’s pride was his natural intuition and ability to always be on alert, ever present of their surroundings.

So, when a familiar voice parted the ambient chatter and footsteps of others, naturally, Angeal nearly dropped his tool bag from the unexpected shock.

He turned to face the voice, finding a face he hadn’t seen in quite some time. Caius Dragelion, leader of a mercenary group known as the Dragonblades, who had helped Angeal on his final mission in the Reikinto sands. Caius was a formidable combatant, fantastic at teamwork, and clearly had a natural intuition for handling dangerous foes. He was also, as Angeal recalled, quite kind and introspective. Though they hadn’t spent much time around one another, Caius had come off as honest and professional, if masking a bit of loneliness.

However, this wasn’t the same man who was only a bit cautious out in the desert. His eyes were searching as he paced around the Soldier. His defenses were up. But why–

“--And are keeping interesting company–”

Ah, there it was. Angeal frowned, but kept his stance casual. Caius wasn’t letting on what exactly he knew about the situation that had happened prior in Provo and caused massive destruction in the downtown area, but it had something to do with Sephiroth. What did he know? Who told him anything? If it was Cloud who retold his events on Gaia to Caius, then Angeal hardly stood a chance at defending his friend. The Soldier released a held breath through his nose, before turning to face Caius directly with a raised brow.

“Glad to see you’re doing well, Caius,” Angeal couldn’t help the honesty that bled through his statement, nor the way his glowing eyes softened. Mercenaries and Soldiers didn’t always fare well, with the dangerous lives they lived. Seeing a capable man in good health was always a blessing.

Angeal gestured toward the downtown area with his free hand as he spoke, “I have a lot of making up to do around here, and thankfully, most people understood I was only there to stop the fight. So, I’m very glad they let me stick around to help them.”

There was no telling how much longer the fight would have gone on before Angeal stepped in, after all. Though they were different in nearly every way, Cloud and Sephiroth both had tenacity and stubbornness that couldn’t be matched. The fight would have kept going until one of them was dead, and they did a decent enough job nearly finishing each other off. A quiet anxiety brewed in Angeal’s gut, recalling the scene as Cloud dragged himself along the Masamune. It was like nothing he’d ever seen before.

And yet, something he felt too experienced with, as he remembered the feeling of Zack’s sword gashing into his monstrous form. The desperation to finish the fight and let himself fall.

Angeal shooed the thought away, “If you’re wanting to talk about what happened, I’m happy to oblige. But, maybe we should move somewhere a little more private … That also happens to serve refreshing beverages. I’ve been working since the sun rose this morning, and I could use a break.”

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Disappointed dad-mode activated

Caius slowly nodded in agreement to Angeal’s suggestion, helping to dissolve a little bit of the tension in the air. However, the Soldier couldn’t help but notice when Caius spoke, his words were short and his tone, while even, seemed set on a neutrality that hadn’t colored it back when they worked together in Aljana. At the very least, a tavern would help with what Caius was here for, and it would allow for Angeal to have a break.

That, and if things went south for whatever reason, the presence of so many others around them would dissuade a fight – hopefully. Suddenly, the absence of the Buster Sword felt much heavier. Angeal was more than capable in hand-to-hand combat, a specialty of his he developed to keep his sword from wearing down from overuse, but against Caius’s blade and magic skills, it would only go so far.

Angeal led the way as directed, only quietly mentioning that the place down the street was known for hosting gossips. Unfortunately, it seemed that the questions wouldn’t wait, as Caius upped the tension in the air by asking about Sephiroth’s whereabouts. With distinct descriptors that Angeal didn’t appreciate. The Soldier frowned and locked his jaw, breathing heavily through his nose as he resisted the easy temptation to snap on the judgements made, not only of his friend, but of himself. Angeal was hardly an innocent man, considering the last few months of his life, but in this world he strove to be the man he’d always set himself out to be. Honorable, strong, dependable, honest. Human.

He paused for a moment outside of the tavern doors, turning to Caius, his expression laced with a sad understanding.

“Sephiroth is at home,” Angeal explained, his frown deepening, “He isn’t a ticking time bomb, and he’s no danger to anyone that keeps their hands to themselves. I won’t fault you for making a judgment on Sephiroth based on what stories you’ve likely heard. But, I am disappointed you think of me as that kind of person without hearing the whole story, first.”

Angeal was used to being ashamed of his past actions at this point in his second life, but those actions had affected only a small subgroup of very close people back on Gaia. Since waking up on this new world with a new chance to live his life, he’d done as much as possible to make sure it was filled with upstanding and generous hard work. Caius’s harsh judgment stung, but nothing stung as hard as Hewley’s own personal disappointment in himself.

He led Caius inside, feeling exhausted before their discussion had even begun. He took a seat at the bar and waited for Caius to take his own before speaking up once more, “What did you want to hear about first? The fight, or how I know Sephiroth?”

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RAMBLING

Something deep and dark within Angeal threatened to rear its ugly head when Caius mentioned how cautious he was being with his trust. People suffered because of his mistake. He didn’t have to say the words for the implication to uncomfortably scratch its way up Angeal’s spine. Someone betrayed Caius in the past. The terrifying monster that lived in the depths of Hewley’s soul simmered, just below the surface; an ever present reminder of the betrayals he himself had committed. Promising to always be there for his friends. Forcing Zack to turn a blade on him.

Sure, he had tasted betrayal. Betrayal from the company he worked so diligently for, betrayal from his mother who lied about the circumstances of his birth his entire lifetime, betrayal from his best friend. Yet, those seemed like ripples on the water’s surface compared to the tidal wave of shame caused by what he did to his own friends.

There was no sense dwelling on that, though. He could only focus on not making the same mistakes twice.

Caius’s story about the teenager he met certainly explained the reason for his cold shoulder, though. It must have been another person from their world, who lived well past after Hewley had died. Though his conversation with Cloud consisted mostly of anger and righteous fury, Angeal couldn’t deny that the blonde’s story had been laced with the very same fear of near-extinction. Whatever Sephiroth had become in the years after his death … it was something beyond imagination. Something much worse than he himself ever became. A god. A demon. Yet, at the very base, Sephiroth was still a man – one who had a heart, who felt just as much as anyone else did, who suffered in the absence of his friends, an experiment who was lied to his entire life.

Angeal silently flagged down the bartender for water, and turned to the glass in his left hand, his brows knotted and glowing eyes obviously conflicted. The relationship between himself and Sephiroth. The nostalgia of it nearly made the corner of the Soldier’s lip curl in humor, but the heaviness of the moment stopped it. However, Angeal’s expression softened the longer he stared at the cup of water in his hand – still not taking a drink, despite how his parched throat complained.

“I met Sephiroth as a teenager, while climbing the ranks in our military,” Angeal explained, gaze distant as he recalled his earlier years with Sephiroth. There was so much the Soldier Extraordinaire didn’t know. It was hard enough forcing Sephiroth to let them be friends, and the word was even more foreign still. The world’s greatest Soldier, nearly the same age as himself and Genesis, had never had friends. He’d never had a home cooked meal, never been complimented beyond his ability to fight, never attended a play or read poetry. One could almost count on a single hand the things Sephiroth had done, and they were all related to the military, to fighting, to powerful progress. He was a fighting machine.

And so obviously … lonely. He and Genesis were perhaps the only two people on the planet who’d ever seen the man crack a (tiny, could have easily been a smirk) smile as an adult.

“It was obvious that he’d been forced into military life since he was a child. Battle was all he really knew – you’d find no better genius for strategy – and no one could really best him in a fight. The best I could do for a long time was make him break a sweat. I think that’s why we became companions, at first.”

Those early spars were a struggle. Angeal and Genesis worked day after day, night after night, just to be able to keep up with Sephiroth. It was a slog, but Genesis’s dream of besting Sephiroth kept them trudging forward, while Angeal … well, he simply ended up enjoying the job. Slowly, whether they all realized it or not, they began to slip into their own roles; a trio that could never be defeated when working together. They covered each other’s weaknesses perfectly.

“We’ve been good friends for years, and I acknowledge that … well, I was one of the only friends Sephiroth ever had,” Angeal explained with a frown, pausing only to finally take a refreshing, deep drink of the cold water he’d ordered. “He’s never been a social person. He wasn’t raised to have friends. He’s socially awkward, introverted, and was never allowed to have many interests outside of the job he was raised for. He was isolated for a long, long time before I got to know him. But, despite that, we became close friends. I helped him experience a lot of everyday, mundane, normal activities for the first time. He was a behemoth on the battlefield, but as calm as a gentle breeze, otherwise. Much calmer than myself, even.”

Sephiroth was certainly the calmest of their trio, by a mile. Genesis was all spitfire and barbs, while Angeal himself was the stubborn mother hen, unable to hold his tongue when something clashed with his obstinate morals. But Sephiroth was … calm. Collected. Quiet and direct with sarcasm, with jokes so subtle they almost always flew over the heads of anyone who didn’t know him.

Finally, Angeal turned away from nostalgia and focused his attention onto Caius, “I’ll be frank. I was dead – mostly unrelated, long story, don’t ask – before Sephiroth snapped, but I know the stories about what happened are indeed true. However, the Sephiroth currently walking around on this world is the one I knew. And if there is one thing Sephiroth absolutely cannot do, it’s lie or pretend. If he truly was the … monster these people are claiming him to be, the one that they knew, I’m sure the entire world would know it by now. From what I understand of that whole story, he wasn’t exactly subtle.”

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Angeal is like. Sephiroth's only defender lmao.

Caius’s exasperated comment about leading with what he knew would have made Angeal chuckle in any other circumstance. Instead, all he could give was an apologetic shrug. Why lead with the horrible things he’d found out, when instead he could finally share some of Sephiroth’s story? The parts that no one knew, or everyone elected to forget. That, before he found out he was an experiment, Sephiroth was just as human as anyone else. Was he ever what one would consider normal? Absolutely not, but did that matter? Unlikely. Sephiroth never caused untoward harm to anyone or anything without an order or an objective reason.

Caius had his obvious doubts, and Angeal couldn’t really blame him. He put his glass on the bar top, already due for a refill. After hearing the story from Cloud, Hewley knew that there would be person after person from their world with memories of Sephiroth nearly causing their untimely deaths, or hurting people they loved. They would all come after him. But, what was Angeal supposed to do? Let them harm a man who, in this reality, hadn’t done anything to them? Turn his back on his friend for a second time?

Sephiroth couldn’t handle the truth about his birth because there was no one there to support him. No one had been there to reassure him. To talk him down. To help.

Everything Caius said was grounded in reality and fact. One could indeed learn a lot about another person by the way that they fought. It was how the two of them had worked so well together on their mission; they’d been able to read each other easily. It was definitely an advantage for someone trained in combat. But, Angeal had been fighting Sephiroth longer than anyone else in the world. He knew Sephiroth’s every move – the reason he never won spars wasn’t because he couldn’t predict Sephiroth, but that he wasn’t fast enough to stop what was typically coming. In raw strength, he could stop Sephiroth’s blade, but that and endurance was all Angeal had over him. Sephiroth was far more talented, faster on his feet, with a mind that could strategize faster than his own eyes moved.

But bloodlust? No, that wasn’t what lurked under the surface of Sephiroth’s skin. It was simply inhuman power. If Sephiroth were nothing but a mindless, bloodthirsty monster, he could have eliminated anything and everything without a single thought.

No, as much as everyone would love to deny it, Sephiroth had a heart. And just like anyone in the world, he craved to have people who understood him.

“Sephiroth loves battle, there’s no doubt about that,” Angeal agreed with a sigh, tapping his fingers against the bar top, “There’s something … primal to it, buried underneath all the well trained and harnessed skill. But, it’s not a lust for blood.”

Angeal turned his gaze away from the worn wood of the bar and toward Caius, “He was ordered to kill me, you know. Back when I defected from Shinra. But, he couldn’t do it. He refused the mission time and time again. The next time I saw him, he was underweight and obviously hadn’t been sleeping, because he couldn’t stop worrying about me.”

That day always stuck out in Angeal’s mind. His heart shattered, seeing Sephiroth in the state he was in. But, the situation was too complicated at the time to address it. Then Shinra kept throwing Zack at him, and Angeal realized that Zack was the only one who could have put him out of his misery. Genesis would never have killed him. Angeal believed Sephiroth wouldn’t have been able to do it.

“I am keeping a close eye on Sephiroth,” the Soldier admitted with a grimace, as if betrayal was just under the surface of his words, “Our world wasn’t kind to him, and so far, this world hasn’t been either. But the man I fought alongside that day, the man sharing a residence with me, he is the same man I knew. Not the monster so many people have known him as.”

Angeal took a drink of his refreshed water, trying to keep his grip on the glass from being too tight.

“This world is a very rare second chance for those of us that really messed things up while we were alive,” Angeal muttered quietly, his eyes downcast toward the bar, “This is Sephiroth’s second chance too. To take a path he didn’t have on our world. With his friends here to support him this time.”

Perhaps Angeal was too much of an optimist. Maybe he trusted too easily or too much. He was always a sentimental fool with too much faith in the world.

“If something were to happen, and he were to do something unspeakably terrible, then sure. I’d do what I have to do to stop him. But, I refuse to believe that’s the only outcome in his future.”