Cloud pulled over inside the ruins of Midgar, peering around the ruins of what was once the ShinRa tower. He caught sight of Marlene and Denzel waving for him about 100 yards away. He rolled Fenrir over.
“He’s in there,” Denzel said, pointing to a particularly decrepit piece of the tower. Cloud frowned, but moved in, leaving First Tsurugi in Fenrir.
Not five minutes ago, Denzel had called him, saying there was a kid running around in the Midgar ruins.
Cloud’s first impulse was chastisement.
“What are you and Marlene doing there?” He had asked.
“We were at the Church,” Denzel had insisted, “He was watching us…and then he ran.”
Cloud came over as fast as he could. A child running around could mean many things, none of them good: A refugee from meteor still wandering and homeless (and alive by some miracle), a geostigma victim looking for the well Aerith’s posthumous Limit Break had created, or…another Remnant. Cloud wasn’t sure what he could do if it was the latter. Denzel said the boy had looked young…younger than even he was.
Denzel and Marlene stayed back, remembering Cloud’s warning about Midgar: It wasn’t safe and liable to collapse at any moment. Stay at the church and go no where else.
Cloud felt uncomfortable just stooping into the tower section. It didn’t look stable at all. He picked his way through carefully, not wanting to disturb any of the trusses still holding the walls together.
Then he saw him, the boy. Tucked into the far corner, trying to hide himself behind an upturned bench.
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