Title: Tired
Fandom: Final Fantasy: Advent Children
Characters: Cloud, Kadaj, Loz, Yazoo
Prompt: 001 - Beginnings
Word Count: 779
Date finished: 06/23/2006
Rating: PG
Summary: And so it began...
Author's Notes: This started as a much longer fic - and I decided I just couldn't write it. So here's the best part (I hope).
Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Square Enix and Sony Pictures as far as I know.

He was caught off guard when two men on bikes came down the bluff after him. He saw them just before they fell in behind him, and the next then he knew, Shadow Creepers were after him. Adrenalin flooded Cloud's system.

Fenrir flipped open and Cloud grabbed for the main blade of his Tsurugi, slicing at the beasts that got close. Each one he sliced disintegrated into a fine, dark, dust, but another appeared to replace it.

One of the men, with short, silver-grey hair, drew closer. "Where's Mother?" he demanded. Before Cloud had even comprehended what he'd said, he swung at him, the thing on his forearm sparking. Cloud swerved, nearly losing control of his bike. Couldn't they have come earlier?

Struggling to get Fenrir under control, he had to react as the other man - his hair the same color but much longer - began shooting at him. Cloud used his blade to keep the bullets from hitting him. The other man came closer, close enough to claim "we know you hid her, brother." And then he fired again.

At the next chance, Cloud swung at him, and therefore didn't see the Creeper that came out of nowhere in front of him, knocking into him, its claw catching him in the back and knocking the breath from him.

The following dance - all three of them on bikes, the long-haired stranger firing at him - was out of a nightmare. Cloud just wanted to get out of there; he was beginning to feel the effects of the fight, and couldn't keep this up much longer. But they circled him, keeping him to the pace and the course they set.

Brother? Mother? He didn't have any brothers, and his mother was long dead and buried in Nibelheim!

The Creepers were back; he felt like his focus was so fractured he'd never get all the pieces back again. The man with the gun fired again, and he spent more energy making sure the bullets didn't hit him. He didn't even see the other man had laid his bike down until it was right in front of him. He went over it, but Fenrir's back tire hit the bike, and it jarred Cloud more than it should have. The man picked his bike up and was after Cloud in a flash.

This fight had gone on far too long already. The sword was getting harder to lift, but as the short-haired man came up on his right, Cloud swung, striking the contraption on the man's forearm.

And pain stabbed into his left arm. He flinched with a grunt, surprised at how much it hurt, and looked down at his arm, as if expecting it to fall off. Then he swung again, and this time, the man caught the blade with that thing, twisted, and pulled the Tsurugi right out of Cloud's grip.

What?

He watched it go, marked where it would probably land, and then glanced at the other man - who made no move to attack, now that he was disarmed.

But the second one was driving straight at Cloud, and just before the front tires of their bikes met, he flipped his bike, end over end, between Cloud and the man to his right, and fired point blank at Cloud's head as he flew past.

The blow slammed into Cloud so hard he nearly let go of Fenrir. His shades caught the brunt of it, deflecting the bullet enough that it only cut him a little, but the glasses were lost to the landscape, and it twisted his already sore arm. Cloud picked up his speed, trying to outrun the two and their Creepers, while clutching his arm, trying to ease it a little. The two dropped back, but all the Creepers leapt at him…

And were dismissed. The two flanking him peeled off, smirking as they went. Cloud brought Fenrir to a stop, shaking from exhaustion, and looked up at the bluff as if his eyes were drawn there.

A third man on a motorcycle looked back at him, an identical smirk on his face. Once he was sure Cloud had seen him, he roared off.

When they'd gone, and when he stopped shaking, he went to find the main blade of his Tsurugi, rather glad Tifa hadn't seen that. He collected it and then sat there for a while, wondering why it felt like something big had just begun.

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