"The Wild Rose."
"There is something I have been longing to see. That's the reason I want to end this conflict. Of course that's all still a dream…"
----
Wisps, tails of light; swaying and swirving in a dance through the air, the only disturbance on this dying world.
No more meaningless fights...
The men had met again, the blonde had shaken his head, but the silver haired male was persistant.
"I'll give you a reason then."
The sparkling Wild Rose appeared; it hovered over Sephiroth's hand, a symbol of dreams and hope.
"How easy it is to kill dreams and other fragile feelings. It is pathetic to cling to and live for such things."
The rose dropped from the silver haired male's hand to the hard ground below; the blood that speckled the rose did not go unnoticed, but the scene played out nonetheless. Nothing changed from the times before.
"This is Firion's?" A flash of the man's face ran through his mind. It whispered to him of his dreams and hopes. So passionate, Firion in his wish to fight for what he wanted and believed in.
Cloud ran towards the rose, stopping short of it, "Could it be? What have you done to them!?"
"With this you have a reason to fight me?"
And this was where it changed…
The rose began to wilt, the blood seeping from the petals to pool upon the ground, and Sephiroth did not turn his back… did not disappear this time. He had his prey come to him once more, the cat and the mouse.
No this time, Sephiroth still faced the blonde, and the bewitching smile remained.
"With their deaths do you have reason enough to fight me?"
Masumune appeared in the male's hands and he shifted into position.
"Or will you once again do nothing?"
Cloud scowled, the Buster Blade appearing in his hands. His posture was stiff, anger and crushing sadness emitting from him. Again... he had been unable to protect people who had been close to him. Was this the way it was to always be?!
Moving into position, Cloud yelled, wanting to silence the other, "Shut up!"
Running, blades clashed with scrapping metal, sparks flying.
"Everything you cherish, I shall take it away."
Pushed back, Cloud sprang and landed still at the ready.
"Only after they die do you come after me, this remains your only reason to fight."
That wasn't true! But what were his reasons… he had even said it to himself that he did not know. He was just sick of the bloodshed. But this was not what was supposed to happen!
"You're wrong!"
Sephiroth laughed, his lips smirking cruelly.
"Am I? Puppet?"
Lashing out once more, Cloud yelled, charging.
The blades clashed, Masamune singing its death song as again and again Cloud's larger blade crashed into the longer weapon. The two combatants spun and jumped, weaved and turned, blades crashing together. Eventually however, Cloud was pushed back once more. Staggering back, the shorter blond glared balefully at his enemy. His left heel came down as he panted, an oozing beneath the foot. It was only a moment before Cloud realized he had stepped back upon the wild rose, the blood oozing quicker and thicker beneath his heel. The smell of the blood filled the air and the field of the duel melted away from his vision.
"Firion!"
All that the blonde could see before his eyes was the male's face, blood mimicking the rose, dribbling down from the crown of Firion's head. Eyes were greying; pasting over, lips parted, trickling red.
The younger warrior's body spasmed, a gasping pant from his lips and the Buster Blade fell from numb fingers to clatter to the ground.
Laughter, Masamune pushed deeper through Cloud's chest.
"Failure. Only a puppet."
A grunt escaped parted lips as the image of Firion cold and lifeless still swam before his vision, Masamune pulled back, leaving the wound to begin to bleed.
So much blood...
The blonde fell forward to his knees, hands splayed before him as gasps left his lips, mixture of pain and sorrow.
Firion...
Eyes slid closed as a pained groan left him, hands clenching as the slim blade pierced his chest once again. Blood was trailing from his own lips, and Firion's face would not leave his vision. Coughs bubbled the vile tasting liquid up and the blade was pulled back once again.
"Dreams and hopes are such fragile things. Pathetic to base your existence on something so easily crushed."
As Masamune pulled free from Cloud's form, he fell forward, barely catching himself. Rage filled him but it wasn't enough this time. Not this time. Coughing hard, his form shook as he tried to right himself, eyes open again. Sephiroth had stepped around to loom over him, watching him now, deeming the blonde far enough along to leave to die.
"The puppet is so easily broken."
Black spots filled Cloud's eyes, trembling limbs giving out finally to collapse bodily to the ground and all that filled his ears was laughter.
---
"Cloud!"
Mako blues snapped open, Cloud gasping breaths into his lungs, the face that greeted him a welcome sight. Firion knelt by his side, his eyes concerned, a hand lightly laying over Cloud's heart.
"Your dreams Cloud?"
The blonde shook his head hard, he would not speak on what he had seen. It would bring up too much that he was not ready to deal with. But that it had not been real was what mattered, he had dreamed that same scenerio many times, but never so darkly. The will to fight, the dreams and hopes one carried deep inside were fragile, and precious. So very precious. Cloud still wished he could make sense of his own.
"Only a nightmare."
Firion nodded and his hand drew back to allow Cloud his personal space, standing gracefully he returned back to being the watchman for the night.
Only a nightmare...