Origins
Disclaimer: I don't own it, guys. Seriously...
000/000
At first there was darkness and cold with a single star. And then a light burst forth from the nothing from across existences and a shining being of great power emerged. It had no name and no gender. It was called Creator, brought forth by the Great Powers. With long fingers Creator took the cold and molded it into ice. From the ice, Creator molded the ice into earth. From the earth, Creator molded it further into a planet filled with energy. With a single breath, Creator blew across the planet. Indentations that would become oceans and lakes and rivers formed from the expelled air. Then Creator took more of the cold and molded more ice. Some of the ice was placed at the northern and southern ends of the planet; the rest was melted into water to fill the oceans and lakes and rivers. Creator, however, was not satisfied.
A world was created, yes. But the task was not complete, far from it. Creator could not do this alone however. So Creator reached through the existences and tugged. A being popped from a rip that quickly mended itself. This time the being had a gender and a true appearance. She was a young goddess born from a fading world. She blinked clear blue eyes from beneath a golden fringe of hair.
"Creator, greetings," the goddess said in a bell-like voice. "How might I aid thee?"
"Daughter of the Great Powers, I require your power to finish my task that I was created for," Creator thought to her for It had no mouth.
The goddess nodded. "I shall do as you ask, Creator." She held out her right hand, palm up and fingers spread. "Take of me." She did not flinch when Creator touched Its palm to hers. Her eyes fluttered closed and they glowed.
Green sprouted where ice and water did not touch. First grasses sprung from the barren earth, and then trees. Only a few places stayed as desert for it was the way of things on any planet. In the water, even more plants sprouted like algae and kelps. Soon enough, Creator separated Its hand from the goddess' own.
"Young goddess, I have chosen you to watch over this world," Creator communicated. "Absorb me and create this world's living beings."
"I shall honor thy request," the goddess said as she pressed her hand flat against Creator's chest. A flash of light and she absorbed Creator. She became imbued with Creator's power and a name for herself shone in her mind as a gift from the Great Powers.
"I am called Minerva..."
000/000
With a gasp, Cloud Strife jackknifed up from his position on his bedroll. The sound of panting filled the air and he rapidly blinked his glowing blue eyes. He slowly placed a gloved hand above his rapidly beating heart. "What the fuck...?" he muttered. What a weird fucking dream...
Cloud spied the rising sun from the entrance of the cave he had camped in for the night. With a huff, he rolled up from his bedroll to ready himself for the rest of his journey home.
000/000
The goddess called Minerva gazed down upon the planet she had been given as hers to guide and guard. She held up a hand and blew a breath upon her palm. The air swirled into a ball. The ball of air condensed and condensed until it glowed. Slowly she let it fall upon the planet and the ball of air expanded suddenly and encompassed the world that had been created. As her breath swept across the planet, the first living beings crawled forth from the life-giving power of the goddess. They were tall and yellow and stood upon two legs. Warks filled the air. But other beings after the avians came about, buried deep within the planet, her secret safeguards. For now, they would sleep.
Minerva smiled and blew another breath onto her hand. Again the same thing happened and more creatures came into existence. Prey and predator alike were created. But something was still missing. With a huff, she blew directly onto the planet this time. This was when the first humanoid creatures came into being. Carefully, the goddess connected each of the creatures directly to the energy of the planet.
When awareness came to these peoples, they called themselves Cetra...
000/000
Another startled awakening made Cloud roll right off of his bed above Seventh Heaven. Foul cursing spewed from his thin lips as he struggled up to stand. His wild blond hair was even more ruffled and the crust of sleep lined his eyelashes and gathered at the corners of his eyes. Gross.
What was with the dreams lately anyway? What he truly dreaming of the creation of Gaia? No... impossible. Cloud didn't believe in goddesses and creators. He had no religion, nothing to believe in. Not anymore.
Cloud stood there, in the middle of his room, quiet and alone.
000/000
Centuries passed. Then millennia. The Cetra people thrived. Their greatest city glowed white beneath the goddess' gaze. But there was still something missing. She tugged out a strand of her golden hair and broke it into pieces. She blew the pieces across the planet. When they landed more people came into being. But they were different from the Cetra. She did not connect them directly to the planet, but as time passed they became part of the cycle of rebirth, similar to the Cetra but also apart. With a sigh, she knew her work was done for now.
Minerva slept...
000/000
With a roar of frustration, Cloud woke up. His lips were pulled back in a snarl as he sat up from his nap beside a tree in a clearing of the Ancient Forest. What few animals that were brave enough to even come close to the sleeping warrior scattered at the sound. Growling, the blond rubbed a gloved hand over his eternally youthful face. Why was he having these dreams?
Was there really a goddess? Minerva... Cloud looked at his gloved hands with a scowl on his face. He didn't believe in goddesses, he repeated. Goddesses did not exist.
The gift of the Goddess...
Old words from a time past echoed in Cloud's mind. But... where did he hear it from?
000/000
Minerva did not sleep long. She awoke to feel a dark presence approaching through the cosmos, passing the dead worlds on this existence. But the power of Creator had faded with her last creation, humanity. She could no longer directly interfere with the beings of the planet. She could only watch as her first people suffered. She gave a few dreams on how to imprison the entity that threatened the planet. But it was not enough. Jenova would only sleep, for she was the beginning of the end.
The Cetra faded until only a few were scattered across the planet. It was then that humans began to form their own nations and more complex cultures in the wake of the Cetra's fall from power.
The goddess wept as the world she had been given to watch over was slowly being drained by her last creations. She reached out one last time deep in the isolated mountains where the first draining began, touched a mortal who still lived the old ways upon her belly, and then she disappeared...
000/000
This time Cloud awoke to tears rolling down his temples. His glowing eyes fluttered open. "That was... my mother..." he breathed. "Impossible... Impossible!" He had a father! Didn't he? Didn't he? These dreams couldn't be real. But then why was he having them? He needed answers and he was going to get them.
Rolling out of his bed and onto his feet, the blond readied himself for a journey. At last he swung his multi-blade into its harness across his back just as the sun rose in the east. With silent feet, he left Seventh Heaven, locking the door behind him. There would be no returning for him.
This was Cloud's last journey.
000/000
A throne room with no doors or windows sat within the Cauldron of Creation. Three beings sat on a dais. Below them by a few stairs was a large looking glass that reflected whatever they wanted to see. They were known as the Great Powers. It was they who sent Creator to make Gaia and allowed Minerva to watch over the planet that had been made. It was they who watched the existences, allowing the rivers of time and space to flow. But now their child, Minerva now known as Cloud, was on the move.
"Gaia is done," Cosmos said softly. "Even now Cloud seeks answers for his dreams. Once he has the answers, he will leave Gaia to die as is the natural order of things."
"Yes, it is so," Chaos replied. "For billions of years, Gaia thrived. Her life will end soon enough."
"It may be thousands of years yet until he does leave however," Balance pointed out coolly.
"That is but a drop in time," Cosmos retorted with only the calm that such an eternal being could achieve.
"A blink of an eye," Chaos agreed.
000/000
The image of Aeris faded away and Cloud was left alone in the Forgotten City. He stood upon the jutting marble where his old friend had been killed by Sephiroth from above. The blond fell to his knees and screamed out in rage. He screamed and screamed and screamed.
This wasn't real! He didn't want it to be real. But he could not deny the truth. Aeris had guided the Lifestream through him, releasing the last hold against his memories of before, when Cloud had been Minerva and Minerva had been a goddess and that goddess had been born from another dying world.
It was then that he knew that Gaia was dying. Gaia was dying and he could do nothing. Cloud wasn't a deity anymore. And he definitely no longer had the power of a Creator flowing through him...
He could only stare at his gloved hands and continue to scream.
Above him, in the Cauldron of Creation, the Great Powers watched his anguish.
000/000
END
Wow... Don't ask where this came from, because I have no f*cking clue. I'm still working on the next chapter of Soul Biscuits but writer's block is being a bitch and this bunny bit the shit out of me. Bah, hope you got some enjoyment out of my effort to beat my block into submission. And I hope that the next part of SB gives itself up and let's me finish it...