Chapter 14: Chapter 14 & 15 – We Steal

Wendy Lawson sat in the garden, feeling the relatively warm air in the time of winter as the sun rose in the sky. For years, she didn't have much peace when she worked for Kree and later when she had to hide here to help the Skrulls, probably only when she was flying. 

Now, after a long while, she got time for herself, peaceful, but that peace only lasted for a moment when she thought about the Skrulls, which still needed help. 

He pressed her lips, sighing, “Can’t take a long break. I need to reassure them too.” 

She went back into the house to find the three kids, now looking like fine adults sitting on the sofa. More like one of them was, the other two were lying on his two sides, resting their heads on his lap. It was easy to tell that they were hungover. Although the boy seemed fine. Not only OK, but he was also using magic to write down on the paper, no, drawing on the paper. 

“These two?” 

“They drank too much; I am more resistant to alcohol,” Cloud glanced towards the virtual system screen, copying the world map drawn down on the paper using magic. 

The pen and chart were floating in front of him as the pen drew the map as per his instructions. 

Wendy Lawson, a.k.a. Mar-Vell, smiled as she watched the faces of the girl, looking up at Cloud, “Even if I agreed, how do you plan to get the material to create a spaceship? Mine was destroyed, and the only reason the Skrulls survived was that I heeded Aerith’s warning. Now, they are scattered, feeling hopeless and scared.” 

Cloud crossed his hands, leaning against the couch, “I am thinking…and I have a few ideas.” 

“And?” Wendy Lawson leaned forward to hear what his ideas were, but Cloud glanced towards Aerith and Tifa. 

He shook his head, “I’d rather talk about it when they wake up.”  

“I thought you were the one who made the decisions?” 

“Me? No,” Cloud looked at the map that was half complete, “The two of them are more careful around me…tiptoeing, worried how their every decision would affect me. So, I get to have the last say…to tell them what I am comfortable with. I would call that being a leader.” 

Wendy hesitated; she wanted to understand what happened to him, but knowing that it was during the experiments, she wasn’t sure how to ask. 

She sighed, looking away, “You know…half my lifetime, which is a very long life. I worked for Kree Empire, I gave the Empire everything I had, so I never doubted them. That is why, when they told me that Skrulls were evil and must be exterminated or they’d bring destruction to our Empire. I believed them. Even for someone who lived for centuries…I was naïve.” 

“If there is something that you want to know, then ask. I don’t have the time for your stories,” Cloud tried not to move his eyes as he could and moved the chart behind the system screen for a much easier time. 

“Straight forward, as usual, I see,” Wendy Lawson smiled, “Well, then, what happened to you?” 

Cloud carefully thought; it wasn’t that this was an unexpected question; they already had an answer for that. 

“It was a Monster, Alien, one of its kind for sure. It went to a distant planet, killed all its civilization, and fed on their knowledge and information. Genetic or otherwise. Then it turned the planet into a Spaceship and used it to go to the next one. But this planet…it had an advanced civilization that could hear the planet’s voice and be aided by the planet.” 

“Hm,” Wendy Lawson glanced towards Aerith, turning it back towards him. 

“They fought against it, against that creature, but it brought their Prime Civilization to their knees, so they made their Last Bets. They created Seven Weapons…No, the Planet created Seven Weapons meant to defeat the Calamity from the Sky, and they did manage to defeat that creature. But the cost was high, the Primary Civilization was all but dead, and they barely survived, while the smaller race flourished in the New World.” 

He continued, “2000 Years later, this new civilization found a way to forcefully use the Planet’s energy. Without the Planet’s caretaker, the Primary Civilization, the resources started to run dry. So they started to dig through the ruins of the Ancients and found…Jenova, the Calamity of the Sky.” 

Wendy furrowed her brows, only to hear him continue, “It was alive, but it couldn’t heal itself, not after the Planet’s kind of damage. Still, this new Civilization started experimenting, but they soon realized something about this creature and came up with a New Theory, the Reunion Theory.” 

“Reunion?” 

“Yes, once the cells of this creature were implanted in others, it granted them Super Strength and Abilities. But soon, they realized that Jenova was overwriting the wills of these people, and Jenova sought to be whole again, drawing these people towards it. In hopes that it could take their strength and abilities to revive itself.” 

“After 2000 years?! It’s still alive?” 

Cloud glanced towards her, focusing on the chart, “Because of that, the race of that world thought it would be better if this experiment were done on a different planet. Not only that, one that didn’t have the capabilities to travel into space, which led to us becoming part of that experiment until our escape. The cells inside me…are that of Jenova; I am a failed experiment. Aerith is a Cetra and half-human; as for Tifa, she woke up her abilities through the lifestream, the will and life force of the planet.” 

“I don’t know how they concluded, but they, for some reason, de-aged us, and I, who was mentally and physically unstable, stabilized enough to use our powers to escape,” Cloud raised the palm of his hand, and the Keyblades appeared in his palm. 

“Oh, well, those guys must have escaped by now. They will probably wait and see if I destroy this civilization or not,” Cloud loosened his grip on the Keyblades, and they disappeared. 

“So that’s a possibility,” Wendy Lawson felt her shoulder tense up. 

“No…it’s not,” Aerith slowly raised her body, feeling lethargic, but a green wind from Earth surrounded her, and she felt much more refreshed. 

She cast the same magic on Tifa, who slowly opened her eyes, “Gosh, you guys talk too much.” 

She tucked her hair back, resting her head on Cloud’s shoulder, “Cloud…is too hard on himself.” 

Cloud glanced towards Tifa, and a slight blush appeared, remembering the last night. For hours he kissed her until their mouths started paining, their lips swelled, and they had touched each other’s bodies. 

He wanted to say that he thought otherwise, but at the same time, he didn’t want to say counter her. He refocused his attention, and the pen started drawing again. 

“What are you doing so early in the morning,” Aerith glanced towards the chart and the System Screen, “Is this…the world map? Couldn’t you have bought it?” 

“Probably, maybe one of this size might not be readily available, but I am trying to use magic to see….” He didn’t have to say, and they knew what he meant.

It was an idea that they came up with when he said he felt he had the physical memory of taking the Buster Sword from Angeal. 

Aerith thought it might be something else, but they still wondered if it was possible, and so he wanted to try skills in the memories. With hand, it would take time, but using that hazy memory and using magic to use it directly, was a different story entirely. 

“I am about prying, and it would even be ruder of me to ask you if I could study your blood.” 

“Wait, Mar-Vell,” Tifa furrowed her brows, leaning forward to keep Cloud back, protective of him and Aerith. 

“Even if you didn’t say that…I would have asked you to. My body has two types of cells: human cells and Jenova Cells. And Jenova cells are infringing on my human cells, their progress rate, and how they would affect me, which all need to be researched. Do they continuously overwrite, or it is only when I am too tired, mentally or physically, and draw on their powers. Or is there any power that I use? There are far too many possibilities. We need to know that.” 

He said this, despite hearing the warning from the voice of the scientist woman in his head. 

‘Giving your blood, that is giving away too much information. Every planet has developed differently, and the micro-organism, and antibodies you will have from this world, are probably because of the system or maybe a strong immune system. She will easily deduce that you have lived on this planet, but you are not of it.’ 

Cloud knew that, but there was something else in his mind, and Sephiroth’s other voice figured it out. 

‘Even if she did, she’d find it hard to explain how a human was born on another planet and then brought here. If she wrecks her brain and thinks out of the box, she might even be able to figure out that the Second Race, the one that Succeeded the Cetra, is the Human Race. Even after all that, she’d conclude that when the three escaped, they didn’t just fall out of that space; they fell into a Parallel World entirely. This would explain why they never heard of the Jenova or such a Race.’ 

‘That’s a tall order for sure, and to figure out all that from one conversation, it would need either otherworldly intelligence or time. But if I give her my blood, it would only be a matter of time,’ Cloud answered. 

“Right, can we finally talk about how you three will get money? Through magic?” 

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Aerith tilted her head, “Healing potions are nice, but the Magical Community, it doesn’t all it. Even if we turn them into medicine, everything you might know would have a trace of Kree Tech, which might reveal that you are alive.” 

“Right,” Wendy nodded, glancing towards Cloud when Tifa beat her to it. 

“Weren’t you saying last night you have an idea?” 

“Last night,” Aerith narrowed her eyes, suspiciously darting her eyes between the two. 

Tifa ignored Aerith’s suspicious gaze while Cloud looked away, “Right…a few. The first is rather simple…using Amalgamation to create a Cocktail and sell it. That would earn good money…although it would require much experimentation. It might not even work. We can also buy numerous already aged bottles and then make Tifa use Amalgamation, but she would never be able to create enough to sell enough that we could fund a spaceship.” 

“Probably not,” Wendy nodded, “At least not by selling on Earth.”

“But we can’t exactly go into outer space without the Spaceship,” Tifa shrugged. 

“What about the other methods?” 

Cloud had a troubled look on his face, “This one troubles me…. But I will still tell you the idea….” 

“What if we use Amalgamation on Weapons? If you merge the two, the density, weight, and power will increase if there are two guns. If the bullets are doubled too, so would their piercing power and the speed they could be shot at. Although the recoil, a pistol could do as much damage as a shotgun. A shotgun that could do as much damage as a tank. If the same thing is done to the tank?” 

“I see,” Wendy narrowed her eyes, “The same thing could be done to the spaceship; rather than stronger material, we could buy a much lower level, which would be cheap, and reinforce it through Tifa’s ability, and then resell it at a much higher price. I have to say, the possibilities of Tifa’s abilities are endless. But….” 

“Yes, they are weapons, after all. If they are weapons, they will be used,” Cloud took Tifa’s palm, “If possible, I would rather not take this route.” 

Tifa gripped his hand harder, with an uncomfortable expression on her face. 

Wendy Lawson glanced at their expressions, sighing, “I wouldn’t be comfortable with that either, but that was a good example. From what I can tell, Tifa’s ability is the best if we want to make fast money.” 

“Right, but none of the ways I can think of can be achieved without spilling blood,” Cloud sighed, “And we don’t want that. For Tifa’s ability to be used to kill.” 

Aerith grinned, tilting her head, “No worries, Cloud. We’d think of some way to do it.” 

She pressed her lips, “If only I could use my magic, we could heal rich people of terminal disease, and they’d pay with half their wealth; nothing could be simpler.”

“Magic Community… might be a boon, but it has its restrictions. Even on our magic….” Cloud covered his face with his palm, wondering. 

“What if…it’s magic that looks like science?” Tifa had been lost in thought for a while now. Ever since Aerith talked about healing, she thought there was something else she could do. 

“Did you think of something?” Wendy Lawson asked, looking at Tifa, who nodded, putting her hand on the table. 

To their surprise, the wood from the table slowly disappeared, a layer of it, and Tifa’s hand turned into wood, “I merged with the wood, and so my hand gained a bit of its property. Although merging with wood makes my hand weaker, if it were metal, steel, or an alloy that I create by fusing numerous metals, that’d be a different story.” 

“Isn’t that a combat application?” 

“That’s the thing,” Tifa reminded him, “Remember his gun? The one he wore on his right hand?” 

‘Barret?’ Cloud thought, nodding, “Yes.” 

“Right, Wendy can’t use Kree Technology, but it should be easy for her to create a Cybernetic Arm and legs, and I can use my power to fuse it with a person. The perfect operation. There are no Cybernetics or such technology; we can decide the price for now.” 

Cloud glanced towards Tifa, standing up, “I don’t know about that. Once we started doing that, even if we could make it possible, the Armies would start researching it. Once they have a successful product…. It’s not that I am overthinking it…but…let’s take more time to think about our choices?” 

Wendy looked at his back, narrowing her eyes, “Kid, if you want to make so much money in a much shorter time, you’d have to make some sacrifices; there is no other way around that.” 

“I don’t know,” Cloud stepped outwards, leaving the mansion, standing under the morning sun. 

He knew that she wasn’t wrong; they’d have to sacrifice their morals if they wanted to earn money. If they used magic, they’d have to sacrifice their relationships with the magical community. Or maybe outright doom people to death or a life of experimentation. 

“Cloud!! Cloud!! Come back in!! I have the best idea!!!” 

Cloud glanced over his shoulder, walking back inside, looking at Aerith’s smug face, “What?” 

“Ok, I found another way!” Aerith puffed her chest out, “If we can’t become rich soon enough, we just have to find someone rich!!” 

“That’s stupid.” 

“Ughk!! It’s not!” 

“It is. We find someone rich and has a good heart; otherwise, they’d cut us apart because we are aliens. Let alone Skrulls ability to shapeshift and take place will raise alarms, Mar-Vell, and her knowledge. What we have will either cause them to fear or make them greedy.” 

“Right, they might tell the govt, and we’d be in trouble; the risk is not worth the reward.” 

Aerith covered her face, sitting back down, “This is hopeless; we are in check from every angle.”

“Hm, if we have to sacrifice something, let’s sacrifice the thing that we can control and hurt someone else the least.” 

“What?” 

Cloud scratched his head, “We steal.” 

“Steal?”

“Right, steal. We take what we want,” Cloud clenched his fist, “We have to sacrifice something…and most of the things we can do…would only end up being used to kill, and I don’t want that burden. We need resources, but everything on Earth costs something. So it’s simple…we take it from somewhere where it’d cost us nothing.” 

“There is a place like that?” Tifa and Aerith seemed clueless, but Mar-Vell knew right away what he meant. 

“From another Planet, but then again, you’d need to go to space for that, remember? And we need resources to go to space.” 

“No…that’s why I said we steal.” 

“Steal what?” 

“That which will lead us to outer space,” Cloud narrowed his eyes, looking towards the door behind him, with a smug smile on his lips.

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