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Cloud awoke to a high-pitched shriek that was painfully loud through his room’s abysmally thin walls.
With a jump, he bolted out of bed, instinctively reaching for his swords and ripping out the one that was the closest. He stood wide-stanced in his dark bedroom for an embarrassingly long moment before he realized a couple of things.
One, there was no active fire or explosions. That was a good thing.
Two, the screaming had not continued. That could either be a good or bad thing, seeing as it either meant the crisis had stopped or someone was murdered quickly and silently.
Three, he realized after careful analysis that the scream sounded strangely masculine, meaning that it had come from one of the Remnants. That was most definitely a bad thing. If there was something for the remnants to be scared of, he should probably be scared of it too.
Keeping his sword nearby just in case, he slowly made his way out of the room and towards the one that the three brothers shared. They all insisted on sharing a room, because Gaia forbid someone tried to separate them. Just as he approached the door, another shriek resounded, this one most definitely coming from Kadaj.
“What is that thing?!” Kadaj asked.
“I don’t know, but-- Loz, don’t touch it!” Yazoo scolded, his voice dripping with exasperation.
“Why not?” Loz whined.
“It could kill you,” Yazoo hissed.
Okay. That was a cause for concern. Cloud mustered his strength to face off against whatever the Remnants encountered and opened the door, only to be greeted with--
Absolutely nothing. Well, it looked like absolutely nothing.
The lights were still on, despite the fact that it was almost 2am, which he knew they would be getting a scolding for. Kadaj and Yazoo were standing on the bed in the farthest corner of the room, pressing against the wall for dear life, clutching one another, while Loz was on the polar opposite side of the room, crouched over something Cloud couldn’t see.
All three of them were now staring at Cloud with owlish eyes.
“Cloud.” Kadaj pointed to whatever Loz was crouching over. “What on Gaia is that?! ”
With a sigh, Cloud put his sword down and made his way over to inspect it. Loz had moved out of his way, and when he looked down at the floor, Cloud saw a dark smudge against the wood--
A spider.
It was a spider.
The tiny bug lifted a leg and Loz jumped back a bit, shuffling closer to Yazoo and Kadaj.
The Remnants of Sephiroth, who single-handedly destroyed almost half of Midgar, tortured several Turks, summoned Bahamut SIN and kidnapped several children. The Remnants of Sephiroth, who weren’t afraid of violence and killed many innocent lives. The Remnants of Sephiroth, who were now cowering in fear over a spider.
It was almost funny. Almost.
“It’s just a spider,” Cloud said, his voice croaking with exhaustion. “They’re completely harmless.”
A bit of tension released out of their shoulders, a collective sigh of relief sweeping through the room. Yazoo finally got off the bed and slowly approached the tiny bug, tilting his head in curiosity. “What’s this… spider doing here, then?”
“It’s a bug. Bugs are everywhere,” Cloud answered.
Kadaj shuddered. “I don’t like it. It’s so… Creepy.”
“ You’re creepy,” Loz shot back on instinct. Yazoo whacked him on the shoulder with the flat of his hand.
“Yeah, they’re a bit funky looking, but all bugs are like that. They’re harmless either way,” Cloud said, gently sweeping the spider with his covered foot. It started crawling, and all three Remnants yelped and backed away. “There are some that bite but it only itches for a while before fading.”
“How do we make it go away?” Kadaj asked, the fear in his eyes only growing stronger as the spider slowly inched its way towards him.
With a roll of his eyes, Cloud stepped forward, firmly stomped on the spider, and then sweeped its curled up carcass underneath the dresser. He looked at the Remnants, who were staring back at him with equal dumbfounded eyes.
“Like that.” Cloud turned towards the door and began to leave. “Go to bed.”
“But--”
“ Sleep. Now.”
“Yes, Cloud,” Yazoo answered before angrily ushering his brothers to go to sleep.
Yazoo and Kadaj had decided to abandon their beds and instead climb on top of Loz, all three of them grouped together like a massive pile of silver hair and limbs. It was kind of endearing to see them so close together. Cloud stood in the doorway and waited until all three of them were laying down and situated comfortably before turning off the light for them and leaving.
On the short walk back to his room, Cloud realized something.
Almost nearly every trait that the Remnants had were inherited from Sephiroth, whether they liked it or not, ranging from physical traits to deep-rooted fears that had carried over.
That meant that there was a highly likely chance that, underneath all that leather and flesh and bone, there was a part of Sephiroth that was absolutely horrified of spiders. The thought of the Great, Unstoppable, Totally Terrifying One-Winged Angel standing on top of a table to avoid a measly little spider was both funny and wrong, but in a funny way.
Maybe it was just a Remnant thing. Maybe it was a coincidence. But either way, Cloud went to bed with a smile on his face thinking that he may have a plan for the next time Sephiroth decided to show his face.